Stranded for What Feels Like Eternity
by Weatherlibby
Summary: A Lost story starting from Pilot Part 1 to, hopefully, The End.
1. Being in a Plane Crash is No Cup O' Tea

The scene was chaos. The sight of burning wreckage, severely injured people with no chance of survival, was just too much. The air was stained with the smell of jet fuel and blood. If you were one of the lucky ones who got out in a condition good enough to escape, you would be in shock, and your frayed-out common sense would tell you to stay as close to the wreckage as possible. The worst part was the screaming, but the still-running engines mostly drowned it out. Screaming. Screaming means survivors, right? After a while, though, more of the screams died, as well as the survivors omitting them. And even after the small chance of surviving a plane crash, there were some who still came out unscathed. These were the truly lucky people, but even they didn't know what to do. One example of such a survivor was Parker Melville. He hadn't even lost consciousness. Well, he had, but it was only for a few seconds, falling out of the plane, until he hit the water, which woke him up. He got out of the water, and he knew from his days in the Navy that you need to find survivors. He saw a woman with brown hair, knocked out cold, but still visibly breathing. He ran over to her, grabbed her arms, and pulled her away from the wreckage. He shook her shoulder, trying not to cause her any more injury. No response. He shook her shoulder harder.

"God, I'm awake, ok?" the woman said, standing up.

"Are you all right?" he asked. Ignoring him, the woman took in the shock of the wreckage. Sensing tears, screaming, or even fainting, he walked over to her, prepared to catch or comfort.

"Well, this sucks." She said flatly. Staring at her in disbelief, Parker yelled,

"We were just in a plane crash! People are dying!" she shrugged. He shook his head, and took off in search for other, more grateful, people to save.

"Hey, wait! What's your name?" She yelled after him. Ignoring her, Parker flew into the depths of the wreckage.

Ivette Lebeau sat by a seat thrown from the plane. She wasn't sure that what just happened was real, much less possible. How does one survive impacting with the ground and finally scrambling out of a crashed plane with only a small gash on the head? It wasn't possible to survive a situation like that. But she did. While in her thought world, a man in a suit literally jumped over her, almost knocking her down.

"Pardon me." She said quietly. She followed him with her eyes, seeing that he was helping a pregnant woman. Curious, she stood up and walked so she was just in earshot. The man in the suit was talking to a larger man.

"I need you to get her as far away from here as possible."

"Dude…" the man ran off to help another young man in a suit who was giving a black woman CPR. A man standing next beside her tapped on her shoulder.

"Excuse me, I think, um, the wing…" he said, pointing to the dangerously unhinged plane piece. She heard yelling and turned to see the man in the suit yelling at the large man with the pregnant lady.

"Move! Move! Get her out of here!" The wing was falling. The man started sprinting away from her. She followed him. She could hear the massive thing falling and finally crashing. She looked up at the guy who warned her about the wing.

"Thank you" she said gratefully. He burst out laughing. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"I survived a plane crash and a wing fall. This is a new high!"

"What?"

"Sorry. I'm being rude. Adrian Bradford." He said, holding out his hand.

"Ivette, er, Ivy Lebeau."

"Guess we'll have to keep in touch when we get rescued, eh?" he said with a wink.

Two blonde haired men stood side by side. One smoked a cigarette.

"Yeah, plane crash, huh? Good thing my wife wasn't on the plane. I'm married, you know? Did one of your friends die? Sorry. At least you're alive." One of the men rambled. The one smoking a cigarette rolled his eyes; not wanting the attention the other one was giving him. "Sorry about your friend. I was travelling alone. Fun, huh? I'm Henry, Henry Swallow." He noticed the man's cigarettes. "Can I have one?" The man sighed and handed him a cigarette. "Lighter?" He rolled his eyes again and handed the lighter over to Henry. Henry lit it, inhaled too deeply, and then started coughing. The first man laughed to himself. "I've, uh, never really been one for smoking." Henry confessed.

Abigail Moore sat at a safe distance from he plane, helping a person with a hurt arm. She felt it over, and the girl, with black hair ad blue eyes, snapped at her every time she hit something that hurt.

"Can't you do this faster, damn it?"

"It only looks like a small wrist sprain with some bruising. You'll be fine."

"I don't feel fine. It's been five hours and rescue hasn't come."

"It'll be here soon enough. What's your name?" Abby asked, changing the subject.

"Leah."

"I'm Abby." A large man walked over to them, carrying two packages wrapped in foil.

"Here you go, dinner." He said, handing the packages to Abby, who handed one to Leah.

"Thanks." Abby told the man.

"No problem." he said, walking away.

"So, Leah-" Abby was cut off by a loud, machine-like, mechanical sound coming from the jungle.

"What was that?" Leah asked, walking towards the jungle.

"Why are you walking towards it?" Abby asked, following her. More people joined them.

"What was that?" A girl in a skirt asked.

"That was weird, right?" A British man said. Some trees started falling down.

"Did anyone see that?" the pregnant girl asked.

"Yeah…" Tammy Moroz walked towards the woods too. She was rubbing her shoulder where the man had shaken it earlier today. She hadn't gotten his name, and didn't really care. All her attention was focused on whatever was tearing up and throwing lots of trees. The survivors stared at the unseen, not really sure if it was safe to go to sleep. Many people were worried that rescue hadn't come. The ones comforting them were still worried, but they were good at masking their fears. Even though they were all strangers, they all shared a bond. They survived a tragedy and now all have one common interest: SURVIVAL


	2. Being in a Plane Crash is No Picnic

When he woke up, he noticed he couldn't breathe. Everything was blue. He was confused. Wasn't he supposed to be on a plane? He snapped into reality. His plane crashed, and he was in the ocean. His lungs felt like they were on fire. He swam to the surface, gasping. He treaded water for a few seconds trying to figure out what the heck just happened. He spotted the surface of an island, and swam as hard as he could to the shore. He stumbled onto the hot sand, and pulled his long blonde hair back in a ponytail. Ryan Delvin turned to the ocean, gaping at the tail that was now rapidly sinking in the water a good distance from the island. A large African man carrying a screaming child in his arms distracted him.

"EMMA! MY SISTER-MY SISTER! EMMA, EMMA!" The African man was consoling the young boy, and the boy was screaming and pointing at the ocean where a young girl's body floated on top of the water. Ryan ran in the water and grabbed her. He laid her down on the sand, and felt her pulse.

"She's not breathing." He told the African man. He tried CPR on the girl, when he noticed the boy, her brother, was watching. He looked at the African man, and gave him a look that said, _I might not be able to save her; you may want to take her away._ The African man nodded and said to the boy,

"Come with me." The boy carefully set his teddy bear next to his sister, and reluctantly walked away with the African man. He started to execute chest compressions when she spat up water and regained consciousness.

"Let it out. You ok?"

"Where's my mom?" the girl asked, worried.

"I don't know." He noticed the little boy running towards his sister. She picked up the teddy bear and handed to his sister, who gladly accepted it.

Tia Bennet pulled a man out of the water. He was yelling, something about his leg. Well, we all have our injuries, don't we? She shushed him, not really knowing what to do. She didn't have any medical intelligence.

"Is anyone a doctor!" she yelled. A young woman with blonde hair came up to her. She motioned to the man yelling in agony below her.

"I went to medical school. I think I can help him." She said. They moved him over to a flat spot in the sand. The woman talked to him, and he had stopped screaming. He asked if his leg was bad, and explained to her that his name was Donald. "No, it's not that bad. I broke my leg skiing up at Stowe in Vermont. I was on this run - going pretty fast - I was racing this cute ski patrol guy. I went off this mogul, lost my edge and, bam!" She said, snapping Donald's bone back in place, making him scream and pass out. She laughed nervously. "You don't have any injuries, do you?"

"No."

"Oh, well, that's good. I'm Libby."

"Tia." Tia was amazed at this woman's level of calmness. They had, after all, just fallen out of the freaking sky. She was a little suspicious of this Libby chick. She seemed a little too nice. Tia bet she was some sort of psychopath or something. Even a Serial Killer, maybe. No one was that nice. She left Libby and Donald to tend to her own injuries, scratches, bruising, and stuff like that. Tia put her hand to her arm, and small traces of blood came off. She stared at the wreckage of the tail, wondering where the rest of the plane went. Who knew being stuck on an island would be so darn BORING?

Tremaine Carter sat on the beach, playing with a stick. Sure he could be out there with the black guy and the hot Mexican chick, pulling people out of the water and saying lives, but how would that help him? It's not like those people were going to survive anyway. Why should he help a hopeless case? He chuckled to himself.

"What's so funny?" A girl asked, pulling a dead body from the water. She had long blonde hair and green eyes.

"Nothing."

"Could it hurt you to help?" she asked, dragging the body up he beach. He stared at it, and the sand filling its mouth and eventually its eyes. This was the thing that separated Trey from the dead people. He knew how to survive.

"Yeah, it could. It could hurt really badly. Real bad." He said, standing up, kicking sand in the face of the dead person.

"Hey. He had a family." A man came out of the jungle.

"There's someone stuck in a tree!" he yelled. The girl left and followed him, and Trey followed. A man, around the age of 50 or something, still stuck in his seat with another dead person next to him. He was scared stiff.

"Hey!" the girl said. "Can you get down?" He shook his head. "What's your name?" she asked.

"B-b-b-Bernard." He managed to spit out.

"Bernard, I'm Bethany Collins. I need you to unbuckle your seat belt." He did as he was told. "Now I need you to grab hold of the nearest tree branch-"

"I can't do it!" he yelled.

"Yes, you can." He grabbed the branch just in time to not fall to the ground in the seat.

"That was fancy." Trey said sarcastically to Bethany, as Bernard scrambled down the tree.

Owen Williams couldn't sleep. There was just something in the air that he couldn't put his finger on. He closed his eyes, counted sheep, and attempted every other attempt to slumber, but he couldn't. So he just watched the stars. He heard a noise in the jungle. A few people he didn't recognize crept into camp. He watched them while pretending to be asleep. They grabbed one of he women he rescued, and another man. He yelled, waking the African man, Eko, up. Eko ran into the woods, and he heard screams and yells. More of them came and one of them tried to grab Owen, but he fought them off, punching one square in the jaw. When they had gone, Owen went to check on Eko. He stood over two dead bodies. He had murdered people. All Owen could think of was: Who are these people, and What Just Happened?

* * *

**Hey guys! Chapters are probably going to be short, but I'll provide a lot of them! (Yay chapters!) Two in one day! Don't forget to review.**


	3. Good Thing We Weren't in First Class

**Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated sooner, but I had science fair this week (Because everyone LOVES science fair!) I'm going to go episode by episode, updating probably about once a week. (Or twice, if I'm feeling generous.) So here is the rest of Pilot, Part 1! **

The next morning, everyone was still a little uneasy about whatever was in the woods that was tearing down trees. A small group of survivors sat in the sand.

"It didn't sound like an animal. Not exactly, I mean." A black man said, stating the obvious. A little boy, obviously his son, played in the sand next to him.

"That sound that it made, I keep thinking that there was something really familiar about it." An older woman said.

"Really, where you from?" Leah asked.

"The Bronx."

"Might be monkeys. It's monkeys, right?" Henry guessed.

"Sure it's monkeys. It's Monkey Island." A Southern man said. A brunette came strolling up to the group. She looked at the doctor, well; Parker assumed he was a doctor, because he saw him tending to this guy that got stuck under the landing gear. Ivy thought he was the doctor too, after he did CPR on the lifeless woman who was now sitting beside them, all good and healthy.

"You ready?" the brunette asked.

"Kate, you showed me where the smoke was. I can get there myself."

"I'm coming." She protested. The doctor smiled at her, then look down at her feet.

"Well, you're going to need better shoes." She opened her mouth to explain that she didn't have better shoes, when she realized what he meant. Ivy watched her walk over to a dead body stuck under a piece of the plane. She carefully took the hiking boots off, like the person was only sleeping, and she didn't want to disturb it. Ivy turned her eyes away from the sad sight, where she noticed a bald man was staring at her. As she turned back to the group, he smiled at her, with an orange peel in his mouth.

"Whatever it was … it wasn't natural." The black man said, referring to the mechanical-sounding tree ripper.

"Does anyone have any sunglasses?" Adrian asked.

"Yeah, I do." Abby said.

"Cool."

"So, I was just looking inside the fuselage … It's pretty grim in there. You think we should do something about the, uh …" A large man looked at the boy playing the in sand. "B-o-d-y-s?"

"What are you trying to spell, bodies?" Tammy asked rudely.

"B-o-d-i-e-s." the boy spelled, not looking up from the ground. Abby looked over at the doctor. It was a little confusing. He looked very familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She dismissed the matter from her mind, deciding to figure it out later. He came back to the small group of people, and crouched down on his feet so he was within eye line of them.

"We go out and look for the cockpit. See if we can find a transceiver, to send a distress signal, help the rescue team." He turned to a young man with brown hair. "You're going to need to keep an eye on the wounded. If the guy in the suit wakes up, try to keep him calm, but don't let him remove that piece of shrapnel. You understand?"

"Yeah, got it."

"What about the guy with the leg?" Parker asked, curious that the doctor had not taken the other injured into concern. "The, the tourniquet."

"I stopped the bleeding. I took it off last night. He … he should be all right."

"I'll come with you. I want to help." A British man said. The doctor looked hesitant.

"I don't need any more help."

"No, it's cool, I don't really feel like standing still, so." The doctor gave in and nodded. "Excellent."

"Well, if he's going, then I'm coming too." Tammy butted in. The doctor looked at her for a second, then responded with,

"I really don't need any more help."

"Then why is he going?" she asked. "Look, I can help, all right? Just as much as him." She said, pointing to the British man. By the look of his face, anyone could tell that the doctor was getting fed up with Tammy.

"Ok, fine. But no one else is coming." Tammy smiled, pleased.

"May I ask you something?" The brunette woman asked the British man. They, the doctor, and Tammy had set out a good thirty minutes ago, destined for the cockpit. Tammy trudged along, sharing silence with the doctor.

"Me? I'd be thrilled. I've been waiting." The British man flirted.

"Have we ever met, anywhere?"

"No, that would be unlikely. I look familiar, though, right?

"Yeah."

"Can't quite place it?"

"No, I can't."

"Yeah. I think I know."

"You do?" The man started to sing, in a ridiculous falsetto, the lyrics to a song.

"You all everybody … You all everybody! You've never heard that song?" The woman shook her head. "You?" he asked Tammy.

"I've heard it. I just don't know what the hell it is—" she said. The doctor looked impatient.

"That's us. Drive Shaft. Look, the ring—second tour of Finland. You've never heard of Drive Shaft?"

"The band?" Tammy struggled to remember, remembering how sad that band was. One hit wonders. She shook her head, and chuckled to herself.

"You were in Drive Shaft?" The brunette asked.

"I am in Drive Shaft. I play bass." She turned to the doctor. "Have you ever heard of Drive Shaft?"

"You all everybody... You all every..." The doctor gave him a funny look. "…body…"

"We've got to keep moving." He said, shaking his head.

Back at the camp, Henry Swallow was talking to one of the survivors, who was sitting cross-legged.

"Hey, I'm Henry. Swallow. Plane crash, huh? Pret-ty crazy. Clouds look pretty ominous, eh? Probably gonna rain buckets on us. You're quiet. Did you have a wife or something that didn't make it? I have a wife. Her name's Maria. She's a seamstress." The sound of thunder shut Henry up for a second, then he went right back on talking to the man. "Do you like rain? I don't, it makes things all wet. Well, I'll see you around sometime, uh,"

"John."

"John, yeah. See you later, John." He walked away, and it started raining. He started to run, and took shelter under a piece of the fuselage that broke off. Parker found a tarp and gave it to the man who introduced himself as Michael, and his son, Walt. They took it gratefully, and hid under the wreckage. Parker saw a woman who had no place to go, and was very hesitant about going into the fuselage. He ran towards her, and directed her towards another wreckage piece, and a part of a window was still visible.

"Thank you." She said, after they were safe from the rain.

"No problem."

"I'm Ivy."

"Parker." Outside, Leah hopped into the fuselage, and crinkled her nose at the smell of rotting bodies. Adrian hid under a piece of tarp. Leah stood by the trees, not getting too soaked, but still wet. She was staring at the man with his arms spread out, smiling, soaked to the bone. She stared at him, almost trance-like, until the mechanical whirring came back.

"Oh my God." A woman named Rose said to herself.

_There it is again…_ Leah thought.

They stepped through a clearing, Tammy almost falling over a dead tree. The raining had died down somewhat, and they were almost to the cockpit.

"Let's get this trans, uh, trans-" Tammy struggled with the word.

"Transceiver."

"Transceiver, and get out of here. I don't like the looks of this place."

"Then why did you come?" The doctor, Jack, asked.

"When did you become the leader?" Tammy snapped. The door flew open and a body fell down, causing the brunette, Kate, to stifle a scream.

"You okay?" Jack asked Kate.

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah." Their little love-thingy going on ticked off Tammy and the British man.

"I'm fine. Charlie's fine by the way." The British man grumbled. Jack crawled into the cockpit, followed by Kate, followed by Tammy, and Charlie wrapped up the line. Tammy noticed Charlie staring at the bodies, and joked,

"Well, good thing we weren't in first class." He laughed uncomfortably. Jack was mumbling to Kate about the transceiver. "So, what does this transceiver look like?" Tammy asked.

"A complicated walky-talky." Jack stated. They climbed up the inclined aisle. Tammy looked over the pilot's body for the transceiver, and the pilot suddenly sprung to life, taking in a sharp breath.

"Holy sh-"

"Hey! Can you hear me?" Jack asked the pilot. He turned to Kate. "I need that water." He gave the pilot some water. "Here. Here you go. Hey."

"How many survived?" The pilot asked in a hoarse voice.

"At least 48. Does anything feel broken?" Jack said, going into some kind of doctor mode.

"No, no. Just my head's a little dizzy, that's all. How long has it been?"

"Sixteen hours."

"You COUNTED?" Tammy laughed. "So what happened?" she asked.

"Six hours in, our radio went out. No one could see us. We turned back to land in Fiji. By the time we hit turbulence, we … we were a thousand miles off course. They're looking for us in the wrong place."

"Ok, happy for you all, but where's the transceiver?" Tammy asked impatiently.

"We have a transceiver." The pilot said, reaching for it.

"Good. Good, that's what we were hoping. Listen, you shouldn't try to move."

"No, no. I'm okay. It's okay. Transceiver's right there. It's right there." Tammy picked it up and handed it to the pilot.

"Where's Charlie?" Jack asked Kate, and she left to go look for him. The pilot was fiddling and messing with the transceiver.

"He can't fix it." Tammy told Jack. The pilot shot her an ugly look.

"It's not working." The pilot explained. Then the cockpit shook violently, and the sounds from last night sounded again. The whirring scared the crap out of everyone, especially Tammy and the pilot.

"What the hell is that?" The pilot asked.

"It's right outside." Tammy whispered. The thing passed outside the window. Jack went over to try to get a look of it. The pilot got up, set the transceiver in his chair, and climbed up an opening in the front window. For a split second, everything was silent. Then the whirring came back and the pilot was ripped out of the plane. They were all frozen, and remained frozen until a huge splatter of blood hit the window.

"What the hell just happened?" Tammy whispered. The sound was louder than ever and something was shaking the cockpit. It fell from its original position, throwing Tammy and Charlie off their feet. They scrambled to their feet and Charlie, Tammy, and Kate started running to the edge. Jack reached for the transceiver.

"Jack, come on!"

"Just leave it!" Tammy yelled. They fell out of the cockpit and started running, not caring where, just thing to escape the single scariest thing they had ever not seen. Tammy tore through the trees, not caring the least who was with her, just making sure her fate was not similar to the pilot's. She could hear Charlie yelling behind her, and she tripped listening. She heard Jack too. She picked herself up and she saw Charlie run past her.

"Charlie!" She yelled, running after him. She wiped the water out of her eyes, and ran into Charlie when he stopped and was pushed down when Kate tackled him.

"Kate!" Charlie yelled.

"Where the hell is Jack?"

"I don't know!"

"How can you not know?"

"We got separated! Look, I … I fell down, and he, he came back for me, that thing was just… it was right there. We were dead! I was. An-And then Jack came back, and he, he pulled me up. I don't know where he is."

"We have to go back for him."

"Go back there? Kate, there's a certain quality of this thing. He's probably dead. Do you want to end up like the pilot?" Tammy asked. Kate stared at her icily for a few seconds.

"If you don't want to help, then don't come." Tammy wasn't really sure if she meant right then, or when Tammy volunteered for the mission. She reluctantly got up and ran after Kate, Charlie at her heels. When they caught up with her, Tammy tried to apologize.

"When I was running in the jungle, trying to escape that, that THING, I heard you shout. I heard you shout "Jack". I'm Tammy, just in case you were wondering." Kate wasn't paying attention. Something else caught her eye. She went over to the mud, where she picked up the pilot's wings. In the muddy water, ripples were disappearing and creating an image. Something was in the tree above them.

"What is-"

"It's the pilot." Jack said, walking out of the woods, mud smeared all over his T-shirt.

"You saw it?" Kate asked.

"No. It was right behind me, but... I dove into the bushes."

"How does something like, like THAT happen?" Tammy asked. A disfigured, mangled, and skinned pilot lay dangling in the branches.

**This chapter was mostly Tammy-centric. But don't fear! More people will go on the radio signal mission! Plus, everyone will get his or her own little flashback chapters!**

**Thanks!**


	4. Pilot Part 2 Part 1

**This is half of Pilot Part 2, and the second chapter should be up soon! Hope you like it!**

Weather was unpredictable there. They left when it was sunny. In a matter of minutes, it was cloudy. Then it poured. Then in less than five minutes, it was sunny again; no trace of clouds, and the only evidence of rain was the soggy ground and their soaking clothes. They went on what one could call a suicide mission and only came out with one casualty. The one person they needed most. Something in the woods, too big to be an animal, but nowhere near natural, tore him out, ripped all his skin off, and threw him in a tree. The team of four walked through the jungle, and every so often Jack would mess with the transceiver, to get it to work again.

"Anything?" Charlie asked.

"You and Tammy keep asking if there's anything."

"Excuse me for wanting to get out of this place, but before the pilot was ripped from the cockpit, he did say that no-one's going to find us unless we get that transceiver-thing working. It's not a very complicated question. So, is there anything?" Tammy asked.

"No."

"Okay. See, that wasn't so hard, now, was it?" she mocked.

* * *

_Tammy sat in her airplane sea, drifting in and out of sleep. She wasn't very good in confined spaces, even though everyone reminded her that planes want to fly. The flight attendant pushed the drink cart to her row._

"_Would you like any refreshments?" the flight attendant asked._

"_I'm fine." She said. She looked at the people sitting next to her. The woman looked at a folder while the man leaned over and kissed her cheek. She watched them, and she had a weird feeling. Was it jealousy? No, Tammy was NOT a romantic. She told herself over and over again, but she knew it was true. The plane hit a bump of turbulence. She put on her seatbelt. Another, larger, turbulence pocket hit, sending some people flying into the air._

"_Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has switched on the fasten seatbelt sign."_

"_You have got to be kidding me…" Tammy mumbled. She closed her eyes, and waited for the turbulence to pass._

* * *

A brown haired man sat down at the beach, sorting luggage. Abby sat beside him, helping him out. He called out to his girlfriend, wife, or something.

"Hey. We're going through some clothes. Sorting them. Come on, you want to give us a hand?" he asked.

"You're wasting your time. They're coming." She said, not bothering to open her eyes, sunbathing.

"Is that your boyfriend?" The pregnant girl asked. She turned to her side, sighed, and said,

"My brother, Boone. God's friggin' gift to humanity." Boone's sister went back to sunbathing, and the pregnant girl came over and started to help them with the bags.

"I used to have a stomach, you know." The girl explained to Abby, who had been caught looking at her.

"Do you know what it is yet?" Abby asked.

"Not yet. I haven't felt the baby move since yesterday." Abby nodded.

"I'm sure it's just fine." The pregnant lady looked at her. "I'm, uh, a doctor. Abby. I think we sat beside each other on the plane." She said, holding out her hand.

"Oh yeah. I'm Claire." Suddenly, they heard yelling. Leah ran from the shelter she had made for herself to the source of the yelling, where a small crowd was already forming. She cut into the crowd, until she was at the front lines. The Southern man and the Iraqi were fighting.

"Hey, come on! Stop it!" Leah yelled. The men paid no attention to her. The doctor, Jack came out of the forest

"Hey. Break it up. Break it up! Come on! That's it! It's over! That's it!" He said, breaking them up. He motioned for her and another man to make sure they didn't get back into another fight. The man went and held back the Iraqi. Leah placed herself in front of the Southern man.

"Son of a bitch!" he yelled over her shoulder.

"I'm sick of this redneck!" the Iraqi, Sayid, yelled, trying to escape the grip of the man holding him.

"You want some more of me, boy?" The Southern man taunted.

"Tell everyone what you told me! Tell them that I crashed the plane! Go on! Tell them I made the plane crash!"

"The shoe fits, buddy!" He spat.

"What's going on?" Jack asked. Sayid muttered something in Arab.

"This guy was sitting in the back row of business class, the whole flight, never got up. Hands folded underneath the blanket. And for some reason - just pointin' this out - the guy sittin' next to him didn't make it." Sayid tried to get the man to hit him again. Tammy came out of the woods after Jack, and spoke up, yelling,

"Stop!" Sayid put his hands up and backed away. "We found a transceiver. But it's not working. Can anyone help?"

"Yes, I might be able to." Sayid said. Tammy handed him the transceiver, and shot the Southern man an ugly look.

"Oh, perfect! Let's trust this guy!"

"Could it kill you to not be racist?" Leah asked. He glared at her.

"Hey! Give her a break!"

"What ever you say, doc. You're the hero." He his words sink in. Jack was speechless.

"You guys found the cockpit?" Boone asked. Tammy nodded. "Any survivors?"

"No." Technically, that wasn't a lie. There was a survivor, but he's dead, so that meant none. Sayid looked the transceiver over, opened up the battery pack, twisted a dial, and then put the batteries back. He observed it in a peculiar matter, and finally announced,

"It's dual band, military spec. Chances are, the battery is good, but - the radio is dead."

"That 's what the pilot said. Can you fix it?" Tammy asked, unknowingly telling everyone who was listening that they had seen the pilot. Luckily, no one spoke up.

"I will need some time." Meanwhile, Ivy was walking by the medical tent, trying to find out the source of the yelling and the reason for the crowd. A small yell came from within the tent. Curious, she entered the tent, and saw a man with metal stuck in his chest. It was bleeding slightly, and he was grunting in pain. She left the tent, and ran to the crowd. She found the doctor and his team from the cockpit mission.

"Doctor, the... man with the shrapnel, he doesn't look too good. He woke up. I... I think you should take a look at him." She said. The doctor nodded and jogged off towards the shrapnel-man.

Adrian walked up to the Iraqi, hoping to have a decent conversation here. He hadn't talked to anyone in two days. It was…disturbing.

"Well, that guy was a sure jackass." He said, sitting down by him.

"Some people have problems."

"Some people? You're okay. I like you." The man didn't answer. "Adrian." He said, holding out his hand. He saw the man was busy with the trans-whatever, so he put his hand down.

"Sayid." The man said, looking back down at the device.

"How do you know to do all that?" Adrian asked, referring to the transceiver.

"I was a military communications officer." He said, still not looking up.

"Oh yeah? You ever go to war?" Adrian asked, sparking his interest in this unfriendly man.

"I fought in the Gulf War." He sighed.

"No way! I had a good friend who fought over there. He was in the 112th airborne. What were you - Air Force...Army?"

"Republican Guard. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm trying to get the transceiver working, and I'd like to be alone." Adrian was surprised. He got up, and walked away, and he could feel the glare of the man's eyes on his back. He had obviously insulted him. He didn't know how he'd done it, but he had. He shrugged. There were much more interesting people here, weren't there?

Ivy sat in an airplane chair, reading a book. She could see mostly everyone, the bald man still sitting cross-legged, Hurley organizing the food, Sayid was working on the transceiver, and Kate walked over to him, hair wet, obviously in a hurry. She put her book down and pushed her sunglasses down over her eyes.

"Is it working?" Kate asked, wringing out her hair.

"Seems to be. Except we're not picking up a signal." Sayid sighed.

"Why do you need to pick up a signal? Aren't you trying to send one?" Ivy asked, after mustering all the confidence she could get to satisfy her curiosity. She didn't particularly like talking to people she didn't know. Sayid seemed surprised; he hadn't seen her.

"Yes, but what you want to see here is little bars. The bars would show the radio is getting reception."

"You need the bars." Ivy guessed.

"Correct. We could broadcast blind... Hope that someone—maybe a ship somewhere—picks up our distress call. But that could be a waste of the battery, which might not last that long. There is one thing we could try...is to see if we can get a signal from high ground."

"How high?" He pointed to the mountains. Ivy nodded. _That_ high.

Henry sat on the beach, looking at a wallet picture of his wife that he kept with him at all times.

"Hey, Marie. We'll be out of here any day now. Then I promise that I'll never get on another plane ever again. And neither will you." He kissed the photo. "I love you, Marie." He stuffed it in his pocket when an Asian man came up to him with a tray. He gestured to him to take one of the little orange things inside, urchins, Henry thought. Henry took one off the plate and began to talk to the man. "Hey, how's it going? I'm Henry. What's your name?" The man spoke some language Henry didn't understand. "You don't speak English? Oh, I ran into this guy one time that didn't speak English. I was at the grocery store, and he kept trying to hit me with bananas, or at least, that's what I _think _he was doing. Then he got on one of the check out lines and started dancing. I think he was under the influence of alcohol. So, the police came, and get this, they arrested the guy standing next to him when they asked who was dancing and the shirtless dancing man pointed to him! I'll tell you this, buddy; my wife didn't find it half as funny as I did. And I accidentally left her Diet Coke under the shopping cart! Boy, she was ticked off at ME." He laughed. The man looked at him, confused. Henry pointed to his wedding ring. "Wedding ring. Marriage. Me, married to," he said, pointing out into the sea, "Marie. Marie. My, wife." He said, trying to make the man understand. The man pointed to his ring too. "Oh, you're married? You're wife's a lucky gal. You're a great listener." The man sighed and walked away to give the urchins away to other people.

Kate stood in front of a small group of people, explaining to them the mission Sayid had proposed.

"We're going to hike up into the mountains, to see if we can get a signal on the transceiver here. Right now, we have three people, Sayid, Ivy, and I, coming so we may need some more. Any volunteers?" Parker stepped forth instantly, as well as one more man.

"What about the thing we heard that night?" Someone asked from the crowd, and the man quickly stepped down. Adrian stepped forward, taking his spot.

"I'll go! Nothing ever happens to me. I'm nearly indestructible!" Adrian joked.

"You survived a plane crash. If that's nothing to you, then I don't want to know what something is." Tammy muttered under her breath. Charlie and Abby stepped forth, and Henry followed them.

"I just wanna get off this place, and this will make rescue come faster." Henry said, mainly to himself.

"Ok, I think we're good on volunteers. Thank you." Kate said to the crowd. She turned to the hikers. "Ok, pack a backpack with at least three water bottles, and an extra change of clothes. Meet Sayid and I here in ten minutes."

After everyone met at the edge of the forest, a young woman ran to the group.

"I'd like to come with you." Shannon said. Boone followed her, shaking his head.

"She's not going. She doesn't want to go."

"You don't know what the hell I do!" She yelled at him, almost looking as if she could hit him.

"Makes really bad decisions to upset her family, which, at the moment, is me." Shannon rolled her eyes.

"I'm coming with you." Shannon commanded.

"Ok, everyone can come, but we're leaving now." Kate said, slinging her backpack over her shoulder, Sayid following her, being careful not to drop the transceiver.

"You couldn't tell from that, but she's actually really nice." Charlie whispered to Shannon.

Meanwhile, back at the camp, the Southern man was reading a letter, and Tammy watched him, interested.

"Why didn't you go with them?" She asked. He folded his letter up and stuffed it in his pocket, embarrassed, but not showing it. "We all saw the racism you flaunted this morning. You could use the points." He turned away from her. "I'm Tammy. And you are…" he sighed, why wouldn't these people just leave him alone?

"Sawyer. And I don't want the points." He said, standing up and walking away.

"If you don't want the points, why are you walking towards them?" Tammy yelled after him as he walked away, eventually disappearing from sight.

Adrian loosened his scarf a little bit. Sure, you're trapped on a deserted island, but you still have to look good, right? He brought up the rear of the group, while Sayid and the brunette, Kate, took the lead. Everything was going fine, the ten of them walking along, trying to get themselves rescued, but after thirty minutes one of the women started complaining, and another man shut her up. He heard something in the woods after their fighting was over.

"Hey, uh, Sayid, right?" he asked cautiously.

"Yes?" He replied, not looking up.

"Not to cause paranoia, there's something behind us." He whispered dramatically. Said kept walking, but Abby and Henry stopped. They both let out a sigh when the Southern man who got into a fight with Sayid that morning came out of the bush instead of some wild animal.

"You decided to join us." Kate mocked.

"I'm a complex guy, sweetheart." He flirted. Adrian scoffed. One day on an island and you're already trying to pick up girls? Pathetic.

Leah lugged a piece of wreckage across the sand, building her shelter. She noticed the bald guy playing a game in the sand. She sat the beam down, and out her hands on her hips.

"What is it? Like chess?"

"Not really, it's a better game than... chess. You ever play chess? When you were younger?"

"No. I'm too impatient to play."

"Well, this is completely different from checkers." He sat down one of the pieces on the board. "Backgammon is the oldest game in the world. Archeologists found sets when they excavated the ruins of ancient Mesopotamia. Five thousand years old. That's older than Jesus Christ."

"But they didn't have plastic dice. Did they make it out of bones?" she asked. He nodded creepily. Leah was a little freaked out. This man was obviously not in his right mind.

"Okay! Wide open space! You should check the radio, see if we're good." Sawyer yelled at the transceiver team. Abby rolled her eyes. He had been complaining the whole trip.

"We're not going to have any reception here. And I don't want to waste the batteries." Sayid explained in vain.

"I'm not asking you to keep it on all day." Sawyer replied sarcastically.

"We're still blocked by the mountain." Henry and Adrian both laughed, that Sawyer guy just wasn't getting it, was he?

"Just check the damn radio!" Sawyer commanded. Suddenly, there was loud growling and grass started to bend rapidly.

"Something's coming." Parker said.

"It's coming towards us, I think." Charlie added.

"Guys? I think there's something in the-" Adrian was cut off by a yell.

"Come on, let's move!" Kate yelled, running in the opposite direction. Henry and Ivy followed immediately, and behind them ran Sayid, Parker, and Abby.

"Go, go!" Parker yelled. Only Sawyer was left standing, ready to face whatever was coming towards them. Kate stopped in her tracks, wanting to go back for him. She yelled his name, and Parker grabbed her arm.

"Let him go!" he yelled. Sawyer pulled out a gun and shot six times into the woods, making everyone duck for cover. Something jumped out of the woods, and landed at Sawyer's feet, dead.

"That's a big bear…" Henry said, walking up.

"You think that's what killed the pilot?" Parker asked. Kate looked at him a funny look and he replied, "The other girl who was on the mission with you guys told everyone." She nodded, and rolled her eyes.

"No. No, that's a teeny-tiny version compared to that." Charlie said, answering Parker's question.

"Guys, this isn't just a... bear. That's a polar bear." Abby informed everyone.

"That can't be a polar bear." Boone said.

"It's a polar bear." Ivy and Parker said. Parker was surprised that she spoke her mind, since she came off as more of a quiet type. Ivy blushed, embarrassed that she spoke her mind that quickly. She was also blushing because Parker was staring at her. She gave a weak smile, then looked away.

"Yeah, but... Polar bears don't usually live in the jungle." Adrian said.

"And polar bears usually don't live this far south." Henry stated.

"This one does." Boone contradicted Henry.

"Did. It did." Sawyer corrected.

"Where did it come from?" Kate asked Sawyer.

"Probably Bear Village. How the hell do I know?" Sawyer spat. Kate rolled her eyes, as if he was the most stupid man on earth.

"Not the bear, the gun." Kate said slowly, as if Sawyer were mentally insane.

"I got it off one of the bodies." Sawyer explained.

"One of the bodies?" Abby asked. You needed to have respect for the dead, and Abby was appalled that this man was disrespecting them in so many ways.

"Yeah, one of the bodies." He said coldly.

"People don't carry guns on planes." Henry replied.

"They do if they're a US Marshal, Loud Mouth. There was one on the plane."

"How do you know he was a marshal? He could've been a cop, CSI agent, or even a postal worker!" Henry suggested.

"Postal worker?" Adrian asked, trying to suppress his laughter. Henry nodded and Adrian let his laughter take over. He laughed so hard that Henry joined in. Adrian smiled. He predicted Henry and he would be great friends.

"Because he had a clip-on badge." Sawyer said, answering Henry's question. "I took that too. Thought it was cool." Several ugly looks were shot his way, as he displayed the badge.

"I know who you are. You're the prisoner." Sayid accused. Sawyer looked at him, confused. "You found a gun on a US Marshal. Yes, I believe you did. You knew where it was, because you were the one he was bringing back to the States. Those handcuffs were on you. That's how you knew there was a gun."

"Whoa, whoa. What handcuffs?" Abby asked, covering up some profanity spat by Sawyer. Sayid sighed.

"Michael's son found a pair of handcuffs in the jungle." He turned back to Sawyer. "That's who you are, you son of a bitch." He snarled.

"Be as suspicious of me as I am of you." Sawyer replied coldly, referring to the events of earlier that morning. Sayid protested, insisting that Sawyer was the prisoner. Sawyer threw his hands up again. "Fine! I'm the criminal. You're the terrorist. We can all play a part." He turned sharply to the side and looked Ivy straight in the eyes, starling her. "Who do you want to be?" She remained silent. As he was turning, Abby had an idea. She quickly grabbed the gun from Sawyer's pocket, so that he spun around, and she pointed at him. He gasped in surprise.

"Does anybody know how to use a gun?" Abby asked, worriedly.

"I think you just, uh, pull the trigger. You know, one time, I was in this bank, and a guy with a gun walked in-" Henry was interrupted in the middle of his story by Parker.

"Don't use the gun." He said in a calm voice, trying to get Abby to calm down, because he thought she was going to shoot Sawyer.

"I'm going to take it apart." Abby explained. Parker and Sayid breathed a sigh of relief.

"There's a button on the grip. Push that, it will eject the magazine." Abby did what he said, and the magazine fell to the ground. "There's still a round in the chamber. Hold the grip, pull the top part of the gun." She, again, followed his instructions. She picked up the magazine and handed it to Sayid, and gave the gun to Sawyer. He attempted to grab her arm, but she shook him off.

"I know your type." He snarled.

"Really?" She snapped back.

"Yeah." He said, putting a long emphasis on 'Yeah.' "I've been with girls like you." Abby rolled her eyes and walked away from him, secretly laughing on the inside.

"No girl is exactly like me. I'm my own type." She said, and she could feel his glare on the back of her neck.

* * *

**So there is Part One of Pilot Part 2! I was going to present it to you guys in one big thingy, but people are impatient, and you guys don't really want to wait that long, do you? And for Tammy and Leah, who chose to stick behind, you'll be seeing more of them in future chapters! (Especially Leah, because she hasn't gone on a mission yet. I'm almost done with Part 2, and it should be up later this week. **


	5. Pilot Part 2 Part 2

_Ivy sat in her seat, staring out the window, everything perfectly normal. Just your average, over-sea flight, right? That's what Ivy thought. Once she got to L.A., she'd find a job, find a new boat, and start the search for her lost uncle again. She pushed her sunglasses up on her head as the flight attendant walked by. _

_"Can I get you something to drink?" she asked in a classic flight attendant voice._

_"Um, just a water, please." She said politely. The flight attendant passed her a water bottle, and she placed it under her seat. She looked around the plane, looking for anything worth watching, since they had just flown into a cloud pass and she couldn't see anything outside. She looked at the people sitting in front of her. There was a woman with her hands folded beneath her jacket, and a man was sitting next to her. _

_"You look worried. I'd be worried too, if I was you. But you've got to stay positive, kiddo. You know, there's always that off chance that they'll believe your story. I know I sure do." She couldn't see their faces, but she still listened._

"_I don't care what you believe." The woman spat._

_"Oh, I know. That's true. That has always been true. You sure you don't want some more juice?" He asked. Ivy assumed they were father and daughter. A bump of turbulence hit._

"_Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain has switched on the "fasten seatbelt" sign. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts." A different attendant said. Another bump hit, making a woman a few rows ahead of Ivy fly into the air. _

_"Oh, sh-" someone behind her whispered in a brief silence. The oxygen masks fell down and Ivy pulled hers on quickly, her eyes darting around the aisle, too panicked to help anyone beside her. She heard a sickening crunch, followed by louder screams that covered up the ones already being transmitted. She made herself look backwards, and all she could see was rushing blue, and in the far back, what used to be the tail of the plane crashing into the water. As another crunch made her head snap to the front of the plane, she realized there was no front of the plane. She closed her eyes, hoping that was all just a nightmare._

* * *

"We should keep moving." Sayid instructed. Ivy picked up her pace. She had been daydreaming about the crash again. Every single day they had been there, she couldn't get it off her mind. Every time she slept, she relived it in her dreams. The experience was real. The screams were real. Now, she didn't wake up screaming or anything like that, but still, every morning, she was shaken. She felt guilty too, that she hadn't helped anyone else with their oxygen masks. Rescue had to come eventually. And then what? Back to the ocean. The transceiver team walked a little farther, most of them in silence, except, of course, Adrian and Henry.

"So, I'm married. You married?" Henry asked.

"Divorced. You got kids?" Adrian answered, throwing another question back.

"No, after we get rescued I want a family though. Do you have kids?"

"Two. Callie and Sam." Henry picked up a long piece of grass, and started playing with it.

"Cool. I can't believe that was an actual polar bear. I mean, I see polar bears in zoos and stuff, but I didn't know they lived this far south."

"I had a friend who worked in a zoo once. You, know, one time, a monkey tried to kill him, " Adrian laughed, "And the monkey was smart, it unlocked its cage, and went full out lunging at him. But he taught part time karate in college and fought him off…but personally, between you and me, I think he was lying." Adrian added. Henry raised his eyebrows suspiciously, and Adrian nodded. Henry burst out in laughter, and Said sighed and took out the transceiver.

"Oh! Now's a good time to check the radio! Not before…but now!" Sawyer yelled, angered. Henry and Adrian fought to keep quiet during that time. Sayid shook him off, turning on the transceiver and examining it.

"Bar. Hey! We've got a bar! Mayday! Mayday!" Sayid called into the transceiver. All that came out was a buzzing sound.

"What's that?" Abby asked.

"Feedback." Parker answered.

"Feedback from what?" Sayid bent over the transceiver, trying to find the source.

"I don't know." Parker replied.

"I'll tell you what would do that. This guy not fixing the radio. This thing doesn't even work." Sawyer snarled. Parker restrained himself from punching this guy square in the face.

"No. No, no, no, no, it's not broken. We can't transmit because something else is already transmitting." Sayid explained.

"Transmitting from where?" Charlie asked.

"What?"

"Somewhere close. The signal's strong." Sayid turned a few knobs on the transceiver, and pushed a few buttons. This statement put the people in a frenzy of questions.

"Somewhere close? You mean on the island?" Henry asked.

"That's great!" Adrian celebrated.

"Maybe it's other survivors." Abby suggested.

"From our plane? How would they even—" Shannon thought aloud.

"Can we listen to it?" Parker asked.

"Let me get the frequency first. Hold on." Sayid pushed a few more buttons.

"There's no transmission…" Sawyer muttered under his breath.

"Shut up." Abby shushed.

"The rescue party. It has to be." The transmission played. Ivy's ears caught a familiar language. "It's French! The French are coming! I've never been so happy to hear the French!" Charlie yelled out in happiness, his eyes lighting up.

"I never took French. What does she say?" Kate asked.

"D-Does anybody speak French?" Sayid asked desperately. Ivy kept quiet, listening to the transmission, not daring to speak up.

"She does." Boone volunteered Shannon. Shannon looked at him, shocked.

"No, what are you talking about?" Shannon questioned.

"What the hell are **you** talking about? You spent a year in Paris!" Boone yelled.

"Drinking, not studying!" Shannon defended. The transmission played again, this time with a male voice repeating a series of numbers. Ivy concentrated on the French words.

"On, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." Sayid cursed. Adrian looked at him quizzically. "The batteries are dying! We don't have much time!" He thrust the transceiver to Shannon.

"You speak French or not? Because that would be nice." Sawyer asked.

"Iteration 17294532." The voice on the transceiver repeated. Shannon held the device in her hands, shaking.

"Come on…" Henry whispered. As Shannon concentrated, Ivy could pick up some of the message. Il est dehors. _It is outside? No, no, I'm alone now. _

"Its…it's repeating…" Shannon mumbled.

"She's right." Sayid agreed. More people looked at him with confused expressions. "It's a loop. "Iteration"—it's repeating the same message. It's a counter. The next number will end... '533'."

"Iteration 17294_**533.**_"

"It's a running count of the number of times the message has repeated. It's roughly thirty seconds long, so... how long..." he attempted to figure out the sum in his head.

"Don't forget to carry the one." Adrian warned.

"Iteration 17294534." Ivy gathered her confidence, and spoke up.

"She's saying, 'I'm alone now. On the island alone. Please, someone come. The others, they're dead. I-it killed them. It killed them all.'" Charlie, Kate, and Parker gawked at her. She blushed and lowered her head.

"Sixteen years. And five months. That's the count." Sayid said, done formulating equations in his head.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Boone asked forcefully.

"The iterations. It's a distress call. A plea for help. A mayday. If the count is right... It's been playing over... and over... for sixteen years." Sayid explained.

"Someone else? Was stranded here?" Abby asked.

"Maybe they came for them." Henry suggested.

"If someone came, why is it still playing?" Sawyer added, destroying any shred of hope Henry had created. Charlie looked out at the ocean before looking back at the group.

"Guys…." He asked. "Where are we?"

* * *

**So guys, where are we? On the island, of course! Sorry this was a short chapter, like I said, it was supposed to be combined with the previous chapter.**


	6. Tabula Rasa

**Here is Tabula Rasa! I've been unfair, I'm so sorry. Chapters will come faster now. Tabula Rasa is mostly Leah-centric, I guess. So, enjoy!**

* * *

Leah stood outside the medical tent, distracted by the man inside. Jack was doing something to him, but she wasn't a doctor, what did she know about that kind of thing? The man, who Leah assumed was asleep, not dead, woke up, hyperventilated, and grabbed Jack's shirt, pulling his face to his, and whispering so softly that Leah had to focus very hard to hear him.

"Don't trust her. She's dangerous," The marshal coughed out. Leah's interest pricked up.

"You should try not to move, man." Jack pleaded with the injured man, that was close to death.

"Have to find her, have to bring her back…" he instructed.

"Yeah, you keep saying that. And every time I ask you whom you have to bring back you pass out on me again. Since your fever's running pretty high, I'm guessing you have no idea who you're talking about." Jack concluded, wetting a rag with an Oceanic Airlines water bottle. The marshal muttered on, demanding things from Jack, like his cuffs, which were in his jacket pocket. Leah walked into the tent, pretending to look for Jack.

"Um, doctor, the man-" She acted surprised to see him bent over the shrapnel guy. "Oh, you're busy?" Jack shook his head, but gestured over to the marshal's jacket.

"If you could get whatever he wants out of his jacket pocket, that'd be great." He asked. Leah nodded and crossed the tent. Jack bandaged the marshal's forehead, then shook his shoulder lightly.

"You take care." He turned to Leah. "If he has any trouble, just yell for me." He left the tent, leaving an awkward silence between Leah and the marshal.

"My jacket pocket." He croaked.

"I don't know…" Leah muttered, looking in the pockets, not finding anything. He muttered 'Jacket pocket' again, over and over, until she found the right one. She held up the folded piece of paper in her hand, shaking it in front of the man. "Is this it?" he nodded.

"Unfold it." He ordered. Leah carefully disassembled the square, showing the bottom of a police station. As she unfolded it slowly, more of the picture was revealed. The person was a woman, with brown hair. The face was revealed.

"Dangerous." The marshal coughed. "She's dangerous." Leah's eyes widened.

"This is the girl who went on the cockpit mission. What did she do?" Leah asked the marshal. When he didn't reply, she peeked over at him. He was passed out cold. "Damn it…" she muttered, then quietly pocketed the mug shot.

"It's getting dark." Adrian complained. The sun was, in fact, setting, but for the homesick people that went on the hike for the transmission with Sayid and Kate, time didn't matter. They had found a transmission, with a rescue plea. Someone had been on the island before them, but who? _They must have gotten rescued, _Adrian thought.

"Then pick up the pace." Sawyer replied coldly.

"Jackass." Adrian muttered.

"Little louder?" Sawyer dared. Henry rolled his eyes. This guy was not a people person. Henry agreed with Adrian, he was tired, and wanted to stop. But he burned with determination of getting off of "Craphole Island," as the blond heiress had coined it. He put his hands on his forehead, wiping the sweat off.

"We should make camp." Said proposed.

"What, here?" Shannon asked. Sayid nodded. Sawyer shrugged, and kept walking, even though everyone had stopped.

"I'm not stopping. You all have a nice cookout." He said, turning away from them. Henry looked at the group, then shook his head and followed Sawyer.

"Excellent, walk through the jungle in the dark." Parker retorted.

"Oooo, afraid the trees are going to get us?" Sawyer poked fun at Parker.

"No, whatever the hell is knocking down the trees will." Abby answered. Sawyer turned around, and pulled out the gun.

"Well, if you're so worried about me, how about you give me the clip back?" Abby sighed, and laughed a little.

"Put the gun back in your pants, Sawyer. First of all, I'm not worried about you, and second, Parker's right, if you keep walking you're not going to make it to the beach." Henry joined the main group again, and smiled faintly back at Adrian. Sawyer gave in, and by, Boone, and Parker gathered firewood while Sayid put rocks around the set fire point. Henry sat on the ground, watching the sunset, sitting by Adrian, and by him, Charlie. Ivy lit a fire, and they all sat down on the rocks surrounding the camp. Sayid sat down last, holding a rock and a torch. He carefully set the rock on the ground, and set the torch on fire.

"This is Australia." Sayid said, indicating the rock. "This is us." He said, waving the torch.

"Nice stick." Adrian joked. Sayid scowled at him, and Henry, who was trying to suppress laughter, nudged him.

"Two days ago we took off from Sydney. We fly along the same northeast route every commercial airliner bound for Los Angeles does. Now the pilot, he said he lost communication with the ground, correct?" Kate nodded, and Charlie gave the slight turn of the head. "So, we changed course. Regrettably, no one knew we changed course. The turbulence hit. We know the rest." He plunged the flaming torch into the ground, immediately extinguishing it its light.

"The pilot said we were over a thousand miles off course." Kate added.

"Yeah, but, they'll find us. They have satellites in space that can take pictures of your license plate." Abby reassured everyone.

"If only we were all wearing license plates." Parker said solemnly.

"Well, aren't you the pessimist." Adrian said.

"Basic photography - point and shoot. Satellites can shoot, but they must be told where to point." Sayid explained.

"Oh. Bollocks." Charlie muttered.

"Okay, really enjoyed the puppet show. Fantastic. But we're stuck in the middle of damn nowhere. How about we talk about that other thing? You know that transmission Abdul picked up on his little radio? The French chick that said, "They're all dead." The transmission's been on a loop for … how long was it, Green Eyes?" Sawyer asked Abby.

"Um, 16 years?" Abby guessed.

"Right. Let's talk about that." They sat in silence for a while, none of them wanting to think about the shady transmission they had received. Ivy especially didn't want to place the pieces together. And the woman sounded oddly familiar to her.

"Well, we have to tell the others when we get back." Adrian said, breaking the awkwardness of the situation.

"Tell them what, exactly?" Shannon asked.

"What we heard."

"I probably didn't translate it correctly." Ivy confessed.

"No one's going to tell them anything. To relay what we heard without fully understanding it will cause a panic. If we tell them what we know we take away their hope. And hope is a very dangerous thing to lose." Sayid explained with a face of stone. Henry had his doubts about this man. Adrian surely didn't seem to like him, and he came off as a little bit controlling and creepy. But, Henry didn't say anything, only shrugged. Adrian finished Sayid's train of thought.

"So we lie."

"Was it a dinosaur?" Hurley asked Tammy. They were out in the woods, gathering fruit. He had been one of the smart ones who had discovered her fluke in her speech, how she gave away the pilot's violent end. Tammy laughed lightly. He had so many questions. She had started to question why she didn't go on the transmission search team. She was tired, that's a point, she hadn't tended fully to her injuries (and the new ones that went along with the cockpit mission,) and she didn't really feel like venturing out again after such a close encounter with whatever killed the pilot. But, there would always be something in Tammy, a longing for adventure, which she could never fully satisfy.

"It wasn't a dinosaur."

"You say you didn't see it."

"I didn't." Tammy sighed. She walked out of a break in the woods, back to the camp. She sat the fruit down on a makeshift table, Hurley on her heels. A woman took some of her fruit, cut it, and handed it back to Tammy, who put it in an Oceanic dinner tray, and wrapped foil around it to keep the flies out.

"So, how do you know it wasn't a dinosaur?"

"Because dinosaurs," Leah said, taking a bite of fruit, "are extinct." Hurley decided to follow Leah, giving up on getting information out of Tammy. Leah was on the water run, and the marshal's tent was her next stop. She opened the flap, and ducked inside, shaking the sand off her knees.

"So what's his story? He looks kind of…dying."

"He's not going to die. The doctor, Jack, will fix him."

"He's yellow, dude." Jack entered the tent, and Leah handed him a water bottle, which he accepted.

"His wound is infected, but the antibiotics will fight it off." Jack explained to Hurley, who looked back with a confused expression.

"What if they don't?" Hurley asked slowly.

"Then his body will shut down one piece at a time. His abdomen goes rigid, then..."

"He looks like his in pain." Leah noted, grimacing at the sleeping man, who was still writhing in pain. Leah noticed that the mug shot of Kate had fallen out of her pocket, probably right as she had walked in. It had opened and Hurley followed her eye line, discovering the mug shot himself.

"What's this? Uh, dude? Uh…" Jack grabbed the mug shot from Hurley.

He must have found it when Leah dropped it earlier that day. "What do you think she did?" he asked.

"It's none of my business." Jack said.

"She looks pretty hard-core." Hurley stated, showing us the frowning woman in black and white.

"Hurley…" Jack warned, and the marshal started coughing. Jack shook his head, knelt down by the marshal, and gave him some water, which the marshal spit up on himself.

It was late at night. Everyone slept around the campfire, except one person. The person crept behind Sayid, and softly grabbed the gun, gently pulling it from under his arm, being careful not to wake him. Unfortunately, the person's attempts were in vain, and Sayid shot up and grabbed the gun snatcher.

"What are you doing?" he asked. Parker and Abby shot up at the sound of someone talking, and Ivy woke up shortly. Henry and Charlie were still snoring away, but then Shannon accidentally stepped on Henry's hand, and he jumped up, and clutched it to himself.

"Standing guard. You heard what they said is out there." Adrian replied. Boone stood behind him, holding the gun, while Adrian played with the magazine.

"You took my gun off me, boy?" Sawyer asked hot-headedly.

"Please, you've never even held a gun." Shannon laughed at Boone. "He doesn't believe in guns. He's gone on marches."

"I don't go on marches." Boone replied, offended.

"Give it back to me." Sayid commanded. Adrian was unsure of what to do, and Boone handed him the clip. He backed up a few feet. Boone went to stand by his sister.

"Yeah, give it to Al Jazeera, he'll protect us."

"Al Jazeera is a network." Parker corrected.

"I'll keep the damn gun." Adrian informed.

"We should give it to her." Ivy proposed, pointing to Kate. Kate looked taken aback, but nodded, and stuck her hand out.

"Yeah, Kate should hold the gun." Parker agreed.

"Fine with me. Well?" Sayid said impatiently, looking at Adrian with hawk eyes. Adrian reluctantly handed the gun to Kate. He flashed her one of his classic, Adrian-Bradford smiles, the smile that was worth millions back in L.A., the smile that had gotten him hundreds of thousands of fans, but she just turned her head.

"Dude, dude, they're back!" Hurley yelled early in the morning. Tammy came out of her tent, only to find a large group gathered around Sayid and the group of people who went to find a signal on the transceiver. Tammy analyzed them. They looked like they were hiding something. She walked over to Leah, who had also noticed Henry and Ivy's nervous glances.

"There's something going on over there. Can you tell?" Leah nodded. "I'm Tammy."

"Leah."

"As you and the others know, we hiked up the mountain in an attempt to help the rescue team locate us. The transceiver failed to pick up a signal. We weren't able to send out a call for help." Kate and Shannon glanced at each other, and Kate laughed nervously. "But we're not giving up. If we gather electronic equipment - your cell phones, laptops - I can boost the signal and we can try again, but that may take some time. So for now, we should begin rationing our remaining food. If it rains, we should set up tarps to collect water. I need to organize 3 separate groups. Each group should have a leader. One group for water - I'll organize that. Who's going to organize electronics? You? Rationing food? Okay. And I believe a third group should concern themselves with the construction of..." And Sayid droned on and on and on, and Tammy noticed Jack and Kate walking off. She decided to follow them, to see if she could confirm her doubts about the intentions of the transceiver people.

"I, um, I need to tell you something." Kate said after she and Jack had exchanged hellos.

"Is it that you guys were lying? And that you actually found a signal?" Kate stared at her, her mouth open in surprise.

"How did you-"

"I'm not retarded. I can tell when someone is lying. For the love of all things holy, I lived in an expert liar's shadow for half my life." Kate nodded, defeated.

"We couldn't send out a signal because there was another signal blocking it. The other signal - we heard it. It was a distress call from a French woman. She said that the others were dead - something had killed them all. She was alone on the island. It's been playing for 16 years, Jack. I wanted to tell you."

"The same thing that killed the pilot?" Tammy asked. Kate nodded.

"Anything else?" Jack asked. Kate gestured towards the infirmary.

"How is he - the man with the shrapnel in his side?"

"It's touch and go."

"Did he ever wake up?" Tammy eventually got bored of Kate's concern, so she walked away, and joined back up with Leah.

"Were they lying?" she asked. Tammy nodded.

"Apparently another person was here. Sent out another signal. Something out there killed the rest of her team. Crazy if you ask me. "

"Did you know we found a mug shot?" Leah asked, giving Tammy back a considerable amount of gossip that she had given her.

"Of who?"

"Kate." Leah said, running off.

"Wha-Kate? What'd she do?" Tammy yelled after her. Leah observed Jack for a moment. He was carrying an airliner seat, maybe for the marshal. She walked over to him, and picked up the other end of the two-seater.

"You look like you needed help." She explained, and he nodded in thanks. "So…what'd she say?"

"She didn't say anything."

"But you told her you knew, right? About the mug shot?"

"I don't know anything." Leah was starting to get angry. And when Leah's angry…it's not a good thing.

"Well, smartass, you kind of know that she's in the mug shot. And the black kid found those handcuffs. And that guy keeps mumbling 'she's dangerous, she's dangerous' over and over again. So you really don't know anything?"

"It's not my business. Not my problem." Leah had to calm herself from blowing up at him.

"Yeah, you're right. We'll let Johnny Fever take care of her when he gets back from the dead."

"He's not going to die, all right? I'll fix him. I just need stronger antibiotics." Jack said. Leah scoffed. "Look, Hurley found all the antibiotics from the luggage that fell out of the plane. If you could go check the overhead compartments-"

"But there are bodies in there."

"You didn't strike me as a person to back out of a challenge."

"Fine." Leah gave in and solemnly walked towards the fuselage. She saw Tammy around, looking for her bag.

"Hey, do you want to be a big help? Could you go inside the fuselage and get medicine for Jack? Thanks!" She said throwing Tammy the flashlight she had been holding and running away to her tent. Tammy sighed, and put the bags she had messed with down. She grabbed one of the seats and swung herself inside the fuselage. She put the flashlight on one of the other seats, and pulled a bag down, being careful not to look at one of the bodies, his eyes still open in fear, in the face. _What's this? One-a-day, hmm…maybe this'll work?_ Tammy thought, putting it in her bag. She put the bag back, and hurried over to another row of seats, pulling another bag down, and dumped its contents out in the seat. She heard rustling in the rows above her, and instinctively froze. A flashlight turned on, revealing a face.

"Boo."

"What are you doing in here, Sawyer?"

"Trick or Treat, same as you."

"You're looting." Tammy accused. Sawyer laughed a little and looked in the overhead bin next to him, pulling out a small vodka bottle, and pocketed it.

"Aww, you say potato."

"What's in the bag?"

"Booze, smokes, couple of Playboys. What's in yours?" Sawyer answered, crawling down from his stealing spot and standing next to her, peering into the medical bag.

"Medicine. For Jack, and that guy. The marshal."

"Well, that about sums it up, don't it?"

"Do you steal from the dead at home?" Tammy mocked. Sawyer chuckled and shook his head.

"You've to got wake up and smell the bull crap here, rescue ain't comin'. You're just wasting your time. You're sifting through a graveyard, getting medicine for a doctor with failing issues, who is trying to save a guy who last time I checked had a piece of metal the size of my head sticking out of his bread basket. Let me ask you something? How many of those pills do you think the Doc will use to fix him up?"

"As many as it takes." Abby said, picking up from their conversation, standing at ground level. Tammy, embarrassed at being found twice, scrambled out of the plane and walked towards the medical tent. Abby scowled at Sawyer. "You're looting."

"I just had this conversation with the Gutless Wonder." He sighed, then went back, referring to her previous comment. "As many as it takes, huh? How many does the Doc got? You're just not looking at the big picture, sweetheart. You're still back in civilization."

"And just where are you?"

"Me? I'm in the wild."

Parker was helping Charlie stack bags on a wheelchair. Charlie noticed Claire, the pregnant girl, struggling with her bag, and he rushed over and took it off her hands.

"Whoa, hey, I got it. I got it." Parker took it from him and swung it around to the top of the pile.

"Thanks." Claire said. Charlie nodded and ran off to help someone else, and Parker started pushing the wheelchair across the sand. When he noticed Claire was watching, he replied,

"Well, look on the bright side. Whoever's this was is probably better off than we are." She laughed, and smiled. Charlie came back, and placed a small bag on top of the stack. "So, how's the baby?" Parker asked.

"It's okay, I think."

"That's good to hear." Charlie added. "Your husband, was he on the flight?"

"Oh, no. I'm not married." When an awkward silence began to form, Claire sensed it, and broke it. "I know, how modern of me." This caused both men to laugh, and getting Parker laughing was an almost impossible feat. Charlie cause Claire to laugh with his next remark.

"Well, who needs men, right? Bloody useless."

Leah had become a regular at the marshal's tent, running errands for Jack, getting the marshal whatever he needed. It was a good way to pass the time. She was getting water with the really fat guy, _was his name Hurley?_ He handed her two of the four bottles, and they left the tent, but Kate met them. Hurley ran into her, and almost dropped on of his water bottles.

"I was, uh, going to get some water." Hurley explained.

"We haven't met. I'm Kate." _We know who you are, all right._ Leah thought.

"Leah." She replied.

"I was just looking for Jack and I thought he might be in there."

"Yeah? No. He went to get medicine over there." Leah pointed to the fuselage. Hurley looked close to a spaz-attack. Kate turned around, revealing to Hurley and Leah a gun. They looked at each other with wide eyes.

"Where? In the fuselage?" Kate asked.

"What?" Hurley asked. "Yeah, in the uh, uh, you know?" He ran off.

"I've got to get that water." Leah said, trying to walk away casually.

_Leah sat in her seat, bored out of her mind. Gosh, were plane rides boring. She tapped her hand impatiently on her armrest, and stopped a flight attendant._

_"Hey, how long have we been flying?"_

_"Almost eight hours, ma'am."_

"_There's no way to hurry it up?"_

"_Ma'am, we're flying at a very fast speed. Would you like anything to drink?" _

"_No." Leah replied flatly. The flight attendant straightened her hat, and left to tend to an older passenger, leaving the rude flier. Leah unbuckled her seatbelt, and got up to use the restroom. On her way down the aisle, she was shoved by a man, no older than she, who ran to the bathroom and locked himself in. _

"_Jerk!" she yelled after him, and made her way back to her seat after dodging the flight attendants checking on the man in the bathroom. _

"_Sir, I have to ask you to open this door." A bump of turbulence hit, almost sending Leah flying into the air. She grabbed a seat, and made it back to her row. As another bump hit, the man sitting next to her went flying into the air. _

"_Damn airplane…" Leah muttered. _

"So, what are you going to do about it?" Leah asked Jack, holding water bottles behind her back. "About him."

"I told you, he needs water." Leah sighed and handed him the two bottles.

"Will he suffer?" Kate asked, walking up. "Will it be quick?"

"No, it won't be quick. 2, 3, maybe 4 days." Abby said, poking a fire nearby.

"And he'll feel it?" Kate asked.

"Yeah, he'll feel it." Jack confirmed.

"Can't you put him out of his misery?" Kate begged.

"I saw you mug shot, Kate." Her mouth dropped, and her eyes grew wide. "I am not a murderer."

Henry walked past the medical tent, trying to block the sound of the man screaming. He saw John Locke sitting on some wreckage near the tent, and sat down by him. He was carving something of some kind. He raised his hand slightly, and asked,

"What are you making?"

"Whistle."

"Oh cool. When I was a boy scout, we used to make whistles all the time." Locke nodded, and blew on the whistle, testing it. Shannon walked past them, and Abby, who was helping Boone sort even more luggage, sat beside him.

"I wish he would just die already."

"Real humane, Shannon." Tammy was on rain tarp duty at the time, and Jack came over, filling up a water bottle for the marshal. Sayid joined him, and Tammy observed, silently.

"Anything I can do to help?" Sayid asked.

"No, I'm good, thanks."

"The others are getting upset. They want to know what's going on inside the tent."

"Trying to save his life."

"Rumor has it you can't." Tammy piped in. Jack walked away, shaking his head. She noticed Sayid looking at her. "I was curious. And we all know that's why you came over here to ask." She replied rudely.

Kate and Ivy, the one person not suspicious of Kate, sat nearby the marshal's tent, trying to stack logs together to make a fire. Kate got out some matches, but they wouldn't set fire.

"Need a light?" Sawyer asked. Kate nodded and Sawyer threw her the lighter.

"I came by to thank you." He walked over to the two women. "You gonna ask what for?"

"What for?" Kate asked.

"For letting that girl take the gun from me."

"I didn't take the gun from you." Kate defended.

"It's sticking out of your denims, ain't it? I sure wouldn't want to be the one with that gun right now. Because everyone sitting out there listening to that poor boy scream all night knows what's got to be done. Only one that can do it is the one with that gun. Don't act so surprised. I heard you tell the hero the same thing. Hell, there's only one bullet left - be damned near poetic." Sawyer left, and Kate got up to follow him.

"You're not really going to do that, are you?" Ivy asked Kate. "Kill the marshal?" Kate looked at her sadly, and shrugged her shoulders. Ivy sighed. Maybe that **would** be the right thing to do. Jack came out of the tent a few minutes later, announcing to Kate that the marshal wanted to see her. Tammy snuck behind the tent, in a place where she wouldn't be seen, but she could hear. This Kate character had freed her of boredom and gave her something to do.

"You really are one of a kind. You know, you would have got away if you hadn't saved him."

"You don't look free to me. Kate, I'm going to die, right?" The marshal coughed.

"Yeah."

"So, are you going to do it, or what?" Tammy gasped silently in surprise. She stayed in her hiding spot, waiting for the events to fold out.

Leah walked up to Jack, who was standing a good distance from the medical tent.

"So, where's the fugitive?" Leah asked casually.

"In the tent."

"You let her in there alone?" Leah asked, concerned.

"What's she going to do? She's 120 pounds soaking wet." Leah came to the realization that Jack didn't know. She mentally slapped herself. She forgot to tell him about the gun! Well, better now than never.

"Yeah, but she's got that gun!"

"What?"

"She had a gun! I saw it in her... in her... in her... in her..." Jack left Leah and ran towards the infirmary, which Kate had just left. She looked back at him, and slowly looked away. Then a shot rang out. Kate kept walking away. Sawyer came from the tent, a smoking gun in hand. Tammy kept her hiding spot. She peeked through a crack in the tent, and saw the marshal choking and blood coming out of his mouth.

"What did you do?" Jack yelled at Sawyer.

"What you couldn't. Look, I get where you're coming from being a doctor and all, but he wanted it. Hell, he asked me. So, I don't like it any more than you do, but something had to be done." Sawyer replied coldly.

"Oh, no way." Tammy whispered to herself. She left her hiding place and walked out to the front of the tent. "Guys?" Now everyone heard the unmistakable gurgling and choking of a man who had been shot in the lung. Jack, Sawyer, and Tammy all entered the tent. Jack tried to suppress the bleeding, to no avail.

"You shot him in the chest?" Jack asked.

"I was aiming for his heart." Sawyer explained.

"You missed." Tammy stated.

"You perforated his lung. It'll take hours to bleed out."

"I only had one bullet." Sawyer said solemnly.

"Get out. Get out!" Jack yelled, and Tammy left too. Sawyer took out a cigarette, tried to light it, but his lighter failed.

"Damn it!" Sawyer yelled, throwing his lighter to the ground. A group of people had formed around the medical tent. Parker, Adrian, Henry, Charlie, and Boone all stood together at one end, and closest to the tent were Abby, Ivy, and Leah. No one dared speak, all listening to the last sounds of pain from the marshal. They stopped. Jack walked out of the tent. Ivy walked away from the group. Abby followed her.

"You okay?" She asked. "It's always traumatic when someone dies."

"It's not that." Ivy said. "I knew they were going to shoot him. But-but I didn't tell anyone."

"It's ok. He was in a lot of pain."

"I know…" Ivy sat down in the sand and stared out into the ocean. Abby sat beside her, not saying a word. And even though nothing was said, Ivy knew that it wasn't her fault.

The next day, everyone was still a bit sad about the marshal's death. But there were also happy things that happened. Michael had asked Ivy to babysit Walt. When he came back, a dog was with him, on a leash, and Walt ran to him, yelling "Vincent!" and Ivy could see Locke watching them, content. Adrian sat alone, and caught an apple, tossed by Sayid. Leah and Tammy helped Jack move all of the marshal's stuff out of the tent. Henry sat by his tent, trying to carve a whistle. It was Parker's day to deliver the food, and he gave Claire an extra package. Abby sat by Shannon, reading a book while Shannon painted her nails, and Boone threw Shannon her sunglasses, and she smiled back at him. Which showed the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, that even through the worst sadness and hardships, good can still shine through.

* * *

**L O S T**

**Tabula Rasa! Yeah! I got a new laptop, so chapters should be coming out more frequently now. (Instead of every two weeks) So expect Walkabout around next Friday! Or if I feel generous, this Sunday! I love these darn exclamation points! **


	7. The Other 48 Days Part 1

**Hey everyone. It's finally a Tailie chapter! It's short, and I deeply apologize. I'm working off of one episode (The Other 48 Days.) I'm sorry that it's been so long getting this out to you.**

* * *

Day 12-

A whole bunch of them sat around a fire. Ana Lucia clenched a piece of paper, a list, in her hand.

"Nothing? They drag 9 people into the jungle – Emma and Zack too - and there's no sign of them?" Owen asked Eko. Eko stared at the ground, refusing to talk. Ever since he killed two of the kidnappers that took nine of their camp that night, he had refused to talk. "Now's not a good time to talk? What needs to happen to make you say something?"

"Hey, calm down, let's figure this out." Tia said.

"Calm down? Let's figure this out? Here are the names of every single person they took - all 9 of them - what they were wearing - what they look like - one of them had a list of us." Ana Lucia explained, waving the list in the air.

"They could have gotten our names from the people they already took." Owen proposed.

"Nobody knew anybody's names the first night." Trey commented, twiddling a stick, similar to the one he was playing with the day of the crash.

"Maybe they're watching us?" A man, who had introduced himself as Nathan, considered.

"You were gone for two hours yesterday." Ana accused.

"I was going to the bathroom."

"For two hours?" Trey challenged. He eyed Ana Lucia, who was glaring at Nathan. He shifted his gaze to Nathan, how caught his line of sight, and Trey mimicked Ana Lucia, glaring at him in a particular manner. Nathan stared back, clueless. Trey laughed to himself and gestured to Ana Lucia.

"So, Nathan, where were you?" She interrogated.

"I was going to the bathroom." Ana Lucia nodded her head, mock-agreeing with him, almost to say, _Yeah, you WERE in the bathroom, weren't you?_

"Hey, stop! We're all scared. Let's not get paranoid here." Goodwin said. "We don't know anything."

"He's right. Why would they try to infiltrate us - that's crazy." Bethany agreed. Ana Lucia shifted her eyes to rest on Bethany, and Bethany quickly looked away, even though she really wanted to show this Ana Lucia chick that she wasn't just some defenseless baby. But, that wouldn't really work out that well with the other survivors, so she kept her mouth shut.

"Well, whoever they are they know we are here. We need to leave this beach." Said the lady who Tia identified as Libby, the girl who she had talked to the day of the crash. Goodwin nodded.

"I thought you said we needed to keep the signal fire burning." Ryan asked.

"I think its time we let it go out." Goodwin stated solemnly.

Day 15-

On the strong suggestion from Ana Lucia, the remaining tail survivors trekked through the jungle, trying to find a suitable place to camp, at a far enough distance from the spot of the kidnappings of twelve of their people. For three days, they walked, and walked, and walked. Some of the survivors were complaining, but they were quickly silenced by one glare from Ana Lucia. Owen hiked near the front of the group, with all the leaders, mainly Ana Lucia, Goodwin, and Eko, who STILL hadn't talked since he had two murders on his conscious. Ryan and Bethany stayed in the middle. They caught each other's eyes for a second, and Bethany knew that he was in the middle of the group because he was a little afraid of being picked off, though he would tell no one, and tried not to show it. With one look of Bethany's eyes, Ryan could tell that the helpless girl defensive technique was all an act. He could sniff out a liar. Tia and Trey kept near the back. Tia was bored, and the more interesting people seemed to be at the back. Trey just didn't give a crap. Who cares if he got abducted? Maybe the kidnappers had actual food, maybe television. Definitely toilet paper. Suddenly, the group stopped, and Tia ran into someone in front of her. At the front, Ana Lucia dropped her backpack near the bank of a small stream.

"5 minutes." Ana Lucia allowed.

"We've been walking for three days straight, Ana." Goodwin complained.

"I agree with, um, Goodwin, right?" Ryan said. He nodded.

"And you're still here. Five minutes." Trey made his way up to the front of the group, to protest Ana's sudden dictatorship.

"You know what? You want to keep walking, go ahead. But you know what I think? Fresh water, rock wall at our backs, lots of fruit trees, staying right here looks pretty good to me." Many people in the group nodded, and some even replied with _Yes, _and Owen replied with,

"I think we should listen to Ana." Ana Lucia rolled her eyes at Trey, and walked a little bit away from the group, with her back turned from them.

"Fine, okay. This'll work." She sighed.

Day 17-

Ryan sat by the stream, helping Libby with food rationing. Everyone else was out, doing their own thing, but they noticed that Ana Lucia was digging a giant hole. Ryan stood up.

"I'm going to go check out what Ana's doing." He informed Libby.

"She thinks one of us is one of them." Libby explained.

"What?"

"Back at the beach - the night they came back – Ana said that Nathan was gone for 2 hours. That he was missing? Creeps me out, Ryan. Do you really think it's possible that one of us is one of them?" Ryan thought for a minute.

"Why do you think she's digging that hole?"

* * *

**There are three parts of the Other 48 Days.**


	8. White Rabbit

**Hey everyone! Sorry this took so long getting out to you!**

**White Rabbit**

**(Abby-Centric)**

* * *

"_So, what's your name?" The boy at the party asked her. She was only 15 at the time, free to mingle and flirt as she wished. She already had a boyfriend, but those relationships were as unstable as a breaking bridge over a pit of alligators. It seemed all right to get to know other people. Her mother told her it was what being a teenager was about. _

"_Abby Moore." _

_"Cool." It was your average, Friday night party. There was loud music, the host's parents weren't home, and there were people everywhere. Everywhere. There were a lot of cute boys there, too. Abby thought it perfectly fine to just have a pleasant conversation with a boy from school. Ryan didn't. Ryan never liked it when she did anything like that. He jerked her arm forcibly, making sure it hurt as he stormed over._

_"What are you doing?" he snarled._

"_I'm enjoying myself, Ryan, it's a party."_

* * *

"Abby! Abby!" someone yelled. Abby shot up from her tent, being a light sleeper, and exited outside quickly.

"Abby, Hey, Abby! There's someone out there. You gotta—the current's—there's someone out there, look. Go get Jack." Charlie gasped for breath. Abby squinted her eyes, trying to locate the drowning victim so she could go get Jack. She could barely hear cries of help. "I woke up and she's—I don't swim." Abby ran for Jack's tent. She stood outside, not wanting to intrude.

"Jack!" she said loudly, with a hint of alarm in her voice. He came out of the tent.

"What is it? Did something happen?"

"There's someone out there-drowning-I don't swim, Charlie came and got me and-" Jack had already started running towards the ocean, pulling off his shirt in the process. He dived in, and Abby watched after him. He swam farther and farther. Then it occurred to Abby. There was another person in the water; another person had tried to save the first woman. Abby looked around the survivors. It was Boone out there. By what Abby could see, nothing more than mere figures the size of ants. The woman was going under. Jack chose to save Boone.

"What's going on?" Tammy asked, walking up to Abby. It was pretty self-explanatory, and Tammy understood. "Who is it?"

"Jack, Boone, and another woman." Tammy looked around the group. Jack started swimming back with Boone. Tammy and Abby got him from Jack and laid him down on the sand. Jack started to dive back in. "Jack?" Abby asked, wanting to know why he was going back for a lost cause.

"There's somebody else out there." He said, and then dived in. Abby had a sudden realization. Jack, he's a doctor, has a need to fix everything-no, it couldn't be him, could it? No, no. The resemblance was truly striking. It couldn't be him. But, what if it was?

Jack walked up the beach, and Abby watched him. He was still sad about the loss of life that morning, and Abby wanted to comfort him, but she was still shy because of her thought.

"Hey." She greeted, not being able to come up with anything different.

"Who was she?" Abby sighed. She had gotten the information from one of the woman's friends (made on the island.) Jack wouldn't rest until he knew.

"Her name was Joanna, she wasn't supposed to be on the plane. She was scuba diving off the barrier reef and got an ear infection so the doctor grounded her for two days. She bumped her flight. That's how she ended up with us."

"She was just swimming this morning, got caught in a riptide. We've been here six days and I never talked to her. Never said a word to her." Abby realized what he was doing. She tried to stop him, in vain.

"Jack, don't-" she warned. It would only make him feel worse.

"There were 47 of us and I never said a single word to her." And he liked it.

"You tried." He liked making himself feel horrible, even when they both knew it wasn't his fault.

"No I didn't. I thought maybe I'd—I thought maybe I could bring him back and still have the time. I was there, in the water. I didn't try. I decided not to go after her." Then he lost eye contact with her and stared at something in the ocean. She stared at the ocean too. Nothing. Abby figured he was just grieving his failed attempt, but until he looked confused Abby kept quiet.

"Jack?" she asked. He slowly got up, and walked towards the ocean. "Jack?" she asked again. He looked around, standing ankle-deep in water. "Jack, are you okay?" he looked around, trying to find something. _He's not going crazy, is he? _

"Standing there, in the water, there was a man. You didn't see that?" he asked, slightly mad-sounding.

"Jack, when was the last time you slept?" she asked, slowly and carefully, trying not to disturb him. He laughed to himself and then walked up to where Abby was standing and took a bag off the ground.

"I need to put this with the rest of the gear." He told himself. Abby's brow furrowed. She was trying to put together the pieces, but this wasn't the Jack Shepherd she knew.

It was not one of Leah's better days. First off, the woman had died right as they woke up, the boar was disgusting and people were ticking her off. When she went to get her sunscreen, she found it was all gone. And when you need something, there's only one guy to turn to, right? She walked up to Sawyer's makeshift tent. He was sitting outside, reading a book. Leah grabbed some cash out of her back pocket, not showing him, but making her presence known. He took no notice of her.

"You're in my light, sparky." Leah sighed. This wasn't going to be easy, was it?

"Light-sparky? What the hell is that supposed to-?"

"Light, comma, sparky. As in your temper. And mood."

"Look, I love the nickname, but I came here on business terms, and…" She trailed off sarcastically. He just wouldn't cut to the case, and he was really ticking her off.

"Calm down. What do you want?" he asked. People had been coming to him for days, after he had declared himself king of the thieves. He looted the plane, Tammy had told her that, and took things from people's luggage.

"Sunscreen." She pulled out the five-dollar bill.

"Your money's no good here." He just wanted to make her angry, didn't he? Well, he'd see then.

"Then what the hell do you want?" He gave her a look, something that could be described as dirty. "If you really think I'm going to-"

"Five grand." She waved her money in the air. Was _this_ guy crazy? Five grand for a tiny tube of sunscreen? Leah wondered if tobacco was the only thing Sawyer smoked.

"Five bucks is all I have." Sawyer smiled. Leah saw the scene in her head, her yelling at him like no tomorrow, but she knew that could never go over well.

"Then it looks like we're out of a deal." Leah gathered her wits, and her mind. She was SO close to punching the man in the face, hopefully causing a broken nose and some broken teeth.

"Yeah, I guess we are." She turned on her heels and walked away, fed up with people.

Ivy sat in the sand, sorting clothes from the dead's luggage. It was not a preferably happy day, not for anyone, but Ivy busied herself with chores, trying to keep her mind off of the transmission that still haunted her. Her mind drew conclusions, and she didn't care for the result. Claire walked over.

"You haven't found a hairbrush in there, have you?" Ivy stared up at Claire, before remembering to answer.

"No. Sorry."

"I must have looked through twenty suitcases. I can't find one. It's weird, right? When you think that everyone packs a hairbrush." Claire sat down beside her. Well, sort of half-falling and sitting.

"Are you alright?" Ivy asked.

"Yeah, it's just the heat. Oh, and, and I'm pregnant." Ivy laughed.

"Really?" she asked. She took a water bottle out of her backpack and handed it to Claire. She thankfully took it, taking small sips at a time.

"Thanks. What are you doing?"

"I'm sorting the practical clothes from the impractical. Would you like to help?" Ivy asked. Claire nodded, and they started folding clothes. If there was one that they think wouldn't fit anyone, or was just so ugly they wanted to erase it from their minds, they put it in the 'impractical pile.' Regular clothes that were given the okay went into the 'practical' pile. Ivy and Claire made up a new pile of clothes _they _liked, to keep for themselves. Claire couldn't really fit into any, so she took ones her normal size. Ivy found many pairs of sunglasses, which she liked. Eventually Adrian caught sight of Ivy sorting sunglasses, and came over to help the girls, picking out several nice pairs of shades.

"Can I—can I ask you something?" Claire asked Adrian.

"Sure." He winked.

"Are you a Libra?" she asked. He stopped to think. His birthday was…oh yeah. He racked his brain thinking of the days when he actually used to read the newspaper from cover to cover.

"That's cool, yeah, I'm a Libra."

"I thought so. Sociable, easygoing. You know, everyone thinks astrology's just a load of crap but that's just because they don't get it." She turned to Ivy. "And let me guess. You're, hmm. A Virgo!" Claire nearly yelled as she figured it out. Ivy nodded, laughing inwardly that she even knew where the Virgo constellation was. "I can do your chart if you want to." Claire proposed. Ivy didn't know how to respond. "Or not. Shy Virgos…" The comment made Ivy laugh, which Claire and Adrian both joined in.

Henry was on water duty. He walked to the rain tarp, figuring it would be brimming over, because it rained so much the other day. He came upon it empty. He got a feeling at the pit of his stomach, not a conscious feeling-yet. He walked back to the food shelter. Henry checked the water bottle corner. Empty.

"Oh, shot, oh shoot. This reminds me of the time I broke Marie's favorite vase, spilled water all over the carpet…"Just then, as if karma and fate had decided to gang up and take him down, Parker came into the tent. Parker spied the look on Henry's face.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Nothing! Nothing." Henry tried his best to lie. Parker raised an eyebrow. Henry was getting a little uneasy. Parker looked like he could beat him up, right then and there.

"I used to be in the army." Henry nodded. He could tell. "What happened?"

"I told you! Nothing! Nothing happened-I, I swear!" Parker eyed him suspiciously.

"I was just coming to get some water. The tarp was empty, so I figured you'd already filled up the bottles. Give me one." Parker ordered. Henry kind of panicked, then ran past Parker and out of the tent, around the bend in the beach, to the medical tent, where he knew Jack would be.

"Jack!" He yelled. Ivy and Claire stopped to look over at him, and Abby watched him, confused. Jack came out of the tent. "Whoa. You look tired. You should get some sleep. One time, I knew a guy who didn't sleep for thr-"

"I'm fine. What's up?"

"We, um, have a little problem." Jack sighed and followed Henry to the water tent, grumbling about how he had to check on the tourniquet man. Henry motioned to the suitcase, which held, maybe, twenty water bottles. "We only have eighteen." Henry explained. "And you can't give water to forty seven people with eighteen water bottles." Jack murmured something about forty-six, and Adrian, whose interest had been sparked, came into the tent. He saw the three men looking over the suitcase and gave Henry a questionable look. Henry gestured to the suitcase and Adrian peered over.

"That's all?" Jack nodded. "If people find out this is all we got, they're going to freak out." Adrian stated, the obvious of course.

"The boar's running low too." Parker added. "What do we tell them?" he asked the group.

"I don't know."

"Maybe, maybe we could make one of those water sticks. Or we could filter ocean water with socks, or maybe-"

"Dogs can sniff out drugs and bombs, right? Maybe they can sniff water?"

"Water doesn't have a scent."

"Don't tell the others we're running low. That way you can ration it. Then you can decide what..." Adrian was cut off by Jack, who was getting annoyed by the three other men's brainstorming session.

"I'm not deciding anything!" He suddenly yelled. Abby walked over, she had heard a yell. She saw Jack getting angry with Adrian, Henry, and Parker.

"Is everything alright?" She asked.

* * *

_A hard sting of a hand came across her cheek. She knew that if there wasn't blood now, there would be soon. The hand came back, grabbing her shoulder and shaking it, hard._

"_Who were you talking to, Moore? Tell me!" Ryan yelled. She hadn't let her guard down yet. She held her hands over her face the next time he raised it to hit her._

_"He was just a friend!" She screamed back, matching his level of anger. "Nothing more! What's the matter with you?" Another slap. She returned one, but he caught her hand. He had a look of pure rage in his eye, and punched Abby square in the jaw. She spit on him. He took her wrist and snapped it back. She heard the sickening crunch of a bone breaking, and she clutched it her chest._

"_You're insane!" she gasped, before the cold, unforgiving hand came across her face once again, and then all she saw was black. _

* * *

She could hear Walt before she saw him. He was running, at full sprint, towards her.

"Hey, what's the matter?" she asked, allowing him to catch his breath. He gasped for air, and then said in a rushed voice.

"The pregnant lady fell down. Needs your help, cause you look, you look like a doctor." He explained, pausing to take breaths at times. She got an alarmed feeling and took of in the direction Boone had come from. Charlie and Parker were helping carry her to the medical tent. Abby gently lifted Claire's head. She was passed out cold. They set her down, and Abby started asking questions.

"What happened?"

"She was just walking, and she collapsed."

"It's the heat. Let's get her inside." Abby instructed, pulling up her hair. Claire was put on the airline seats that had only recently been occupied by the marshal. "Claire? Claire, I need you to wake up. Come on, Claire, you can do it. Can you wake up for me? That's good." She said as Claire opened her eyes and muttered some inaudible words. "It's me, it's Abby, okay?" Claire nodded, than propped herself up. "She needs water." She told to Adrian, who had entered the tent. She could almost see his eyes go up in terror, but he nodded and left the tent. "Claire, don't move, okay? I think you may have a fever, and I need you to keep still. It's gonna be okay." She said, trying to soothe her. Henry came back into the tent, empty-handed. "Where's the-"

"It's gone." He replied in a frantic voice. "The water-somebody stole it."

"Where is the doctor?" Locke asked.

"I don't know. No one can find him." Henry explained to Locke. Locke looked into the suitcase, which held four half-empty bottles.

"This is the last of the camp's water supply?" Abby nodded.

"Keeping it all in one place, foolish." Sayid complained, mainly to himself.

"I can go into the jungle, try to find some water." Abby volunteered. Locke shook the offer away.

"You say you were a doctor too? We don't want our other only one to go missing while the doctor is who-knows-where. We need you to keep an eye on the girl. When the others find out the water's gone it's going to get ugly. And when they find out that someone pinched it, it's going to get uglier. I'll go. Camp needs you two here, especially with the doctor gone. And besides, I know where to look." Locke headed off into the jungle. Abby thought she heard the slightest yell of a 'Where are you? Where are you?' But she shrugged this off as early island madness, and went back to the medical tent.

* * *

_The monitor beat to a steady rhythm, showing everyone that she would be okay. Her parents were in the café, getting a sup of coffee as worrying their faces off. She had been found at two in the morning, in the middle of a field, barely alive. Broken jaw, ribs, wrists, whoever had done that to her did a pretty good job of not leaving fingerprints, though. She woke up. 4:12 a.m. Abby looked out of the window. The sun wasn't up yet, but the moon was setting. She struggled to remember what exactly had happened. First she was at the party, and then, this. A policeman was sitting in a chair opposite of her, and he had a notepad with him._

"_I expect you want me to answer questions?" she asked, her voice sore and scratchy. The cop nodded. "Well, first thing I know, I was at Eric Dart's party. I saw a cute guy, so I went to talk to him. Then, next thing I know, I'm here. How'd that happen?"_

"_That's what we want to figure out. We interrogated your boyfriend, Ryan Farms. He says that he left the party early, because there was drinking going on. Maybe one of the boys at the party did it do you? Did you get drunk and fall down stairs or something?" Abby scoffed._

_"Don't you now underage drinking is illegal? Being a cop I'd think you'd know that. And no, I didn't get drunk, and I didn't fall down stairs. I just-" Then it hit her. Ryan didn't leave the party early! She felt her wrist, and remembered it snapping backwards._

_"Miss Moore, is there a problem?" Abby shook her head, but her eyes were wide in fear._

"_Can I see my parents?" The cop nodded, and called in the nurse. After a few minutes her mother, wearing a tear-stained face with runny makeup, ran to her bedside table, grasping her hand and pulling her face close to hers. _

"_I thought I'd lost you." Her mother sobbed. _

"_Well, I'm here now. It's okay, Mom. You don't have to cry." She held her mom's hand and her dad stood over her, smiling that she was ok._

_"Who did this to you?" her mom asked. "Please, tell me, I don't care if you started it, just please tell me!" Abby mustered up her courage and muttered,_

_"Ryan. It was Ryan. I-I was talking with another boy from school, and he got angry, so he pretended to drive me home, but he took me to his house. His parents are out of town. I couldn't leave; he had my arm gripped tightly. Then he beat me up, and my best guess is dumped me in a field." Her mother smiled as if she had told her a fairy tale Abby thought was true. _

"_There are eyewitness accounts of Ryan leaving early, no girl in tow." Said the policeman. His parents are in town. If you're covering up for someone, don't. There is nothing more precious than your safety." Abby stared blankly at him. He didn't believe her._

* * *

Tammy stood, trying to fix a flashlight that had been damaged in the boar run of the night. Sayid was watching her, amused. He had never seen someone fail at something so simple. She took a screwdriver and jammed it into the opening, and twisted one of the batteries. She screwed the lid back on and flipped the switch. Nothing.

"Damn it!" She yelled throwing the batteries on the ground. Sayid accidentally let out a laugh. Tammy looked at him, frustrated. "What do you want?" she asked, sulking back to the bench where the flashlight lay.

"Is it that complex? Here, let me help you." Tammy sighed and let him sit next to her, taking a spot in the sand. He held the flashlight in one hand. "See the little controller module here? It's been damaged. Do you see the little flares right here?" Tammy nodded. "These, if altered slightly, can produce a little bit of solar power. So if you turn the battery this way-no, no, no, the other way. Yes, that way. If you twist them there, then in about an hour you shall have enough to last you for two minutes." She nodded at him. Hurley ran up to them, urgency in his voice. Abby was curious, so she came over to the three people.

"The Chinese. Guys. Have. Water!" Hurley barely managed to breathe out. Sayid marched straight up to the Korean lady and picked up the water bottle, shaking it in front of her face. "Where did you get this? Where did you get this?" He raised his voice. "Where! Did! You!-"

"She doesn't understand you." Tammy intervened.

"She understands me. Did you steal this water?" He waved it in front of her face. She spoke in a language, foreign and fast. Another man, her assumed husband, ran up and started yelling at Sayid in the foreign tongue.

"Just take it easy, alright? We just want to talk, okay?" Abby held up the water bottle. "This had water in it. Is it yours?" The woman looked at her, confused. "Who gave you this?" she asked. The woman made a face that looked like _Oh_, and pointed to Sawyer. Tammy started after him, but Sayid grabbed her arm.

"I don't see the water."

"And?" Tammy asked angrily.

"You go after him now, he'll give you nothing. But if you wait, a rat will always lead you to its hole." Sawyer got up. He started walking into the forest. "Follow him." Sayid whispered. "I'll follow you." Tammy sighed and headed after the 'prey.' She tried to tackle him form behind while he picked up a pack of cigarettes. They fell to the ground.

"Well, it's about time." He muttered.

"Time for what?" Tammy sneered.

"I made this birthday wish four years ago."

"Nice. Why don't you stop being a sexist, sex-crazed creeper? And where's the water?" He smiled, and suddenly flipped her over, so he was on top.

"That's better."

"Get the hell off me." Luckily, Sayid came to the rescue and dragged Sawyer off of Tammy. She picked herself up, and dusted herself off. Abby came out of the woods, and started going through Sawyer's things.

"Touch me again, huh." Sawyer scoffed, shoving Sayid. "You really think I stole your damn water?" Tammy nodded.

"We know you gave two bottles to the Koreans." Sayid interrogated.

"I don't give nothing to nobody." Abby looked up as if to say, 'It's not here.'

"I traded Mr. Miyagi the last of my water for a fish he caught. We worked it out caveman style." Sawyer confessed. Tammy scoffed. She didn't believe him.

"You gave him your last two bottles?" Abby asked.

"Water has no value, Green Eyes. It's gonna rain sooner or later. And hell, I'm an optimist." He turned to the suitcase and took the marshal's badge out. Tammy turned to leave. "You forgot something." He called after her. He threw her the badge. "Seeing as you're the new sheriff in town. Might as well make it official."

It was night. Claire sat in the tent, sleeping. Boone crept in, water bottle handy. It was Parker's turn to check on her, and he walked in, in the nick of time. He'd seem to be doing that a lot, lately. Charlie was behind him, he and Claire were friends or something, and he was concerned.

"Where did you get that?" Parker inquired. Boone looked up at them like a deer in headlights, and started to run, Parker caught him, and dragged him outside by the collar of his shirt. There was a group outside. "Here's the thief." He said, throwing Boone on the ground.

"Where'd he hide it?" Michael asked from the crowd.

"I don't know. This guy had three bottles on him. Why'd you do it, pretty boy?" Parker mocked.

"It was just sitting in—it was just sitting in the tent, and Jack just took off." Boone tried to explain.

"Claire could've died!" Charlie yelled at him.

"I tried to give her some sooner, but it just got out of hand. No one would have understood." Boone tried to explain again, in vain. Abby and Tammy got back from their rat-hole expedition. Abby looked confused why Boone was on the ground and Parker and Charlie were standing over him, looking very, very angry.

"What's going on?" she asked loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Someone had to take responsibility for it. It would have never lasted!" Boone yelled.

"Shut up!" Charlie yelled back, pushing Boone, who had gotten up, down again. Boone stumbled backwards as a voice cried out from the forest.

"Leave him alone!" Abby' heart leapt. She had thought he had died. Jack emerged through the forest, looking slightly crazy, but you could only tell if you stared into his eyes. "Leave him alone. It's been six days and we're all still waiting." More people joined the group, curious of the formality of the occasion. "Waiting for someone to come. But what if they don't?" No one answered. "We have to stop waiting. We need to start figuring things out. A woman died this morning, just going for a swim, and he tried to save her," he gestured to Boone, "and now you're about to crucify him? We can't do this. Everyman for himself is not going to work. It's time to start organizing. We need to figure out how we're going to survive here. Now, I found water. Fresh water, up in the valley. I'll take a group in at first light. If you don't want to go come then find another way to contribute. Last week most of us were strangers, but we're all here now. And god knows how long we're going to be here. But if we can't live together, we're going to die alone."

After a few people had ventured to the water source and brought back water for everyone, things went better; smoother. No one crucified Boone, and Sawyer even shared a few words with him. Abby mustered up her courage, and walked up to Jack, confronting him about her earlier suspicions. He was sitting down, staring at the ocean.

"Hey, Jack." He nodded. "You're a doctor. I used to be a doctor too, you know. I worked in L.A." His head perked up at this.

"Me too. St. Sebastian's." Abby pretended to be surprised.

"I did too. Is your dad Christian Shepherd?" He nodded slowly, a look of remorse in his eyes. "You look like him. Did something happen?"

"He's dead." _Oh._

"Sorry."

"No, no, it was his fault. What did you say your name was again?" Her heart gave a little flutter. _He remembered her. _

"Abby, er, Abigail Moore." He racked his brain, thinking of the occasion.

"Yeah, Abby. I remember. Small world, huh?" he joked. She laughed a little.

"Well, I'm certainly glad someone I knew was on the plane, and survived, I mean." He nodded, and understood.

All the friendships on the island were starting to form. Leah and Tammy sat around a campfire, telling funny and altogether stupid stories to Claire and Boone. Tammy had thought him innocent the entire time. She also felt something else, but she merely shrugged it of as adrenaline of the day. Adrian and Henry found a half-empty bag of marshmallows, and were now roasting them over another campfire, listening into the girl's stories and laughing along just the same. Ivy was struggling to read a book by firelight, so Parker came by with a water bottle and a flashlight, and held it over so she could see her book. They made small talk, and Ivy hardly got any reading done. Thus concluded another day without rescue on the island, but the survivors had not given up hope.

* * *

**Review! I hoped you like it and House of the Rising Sun should be up soon. You guys are awesome!**


	9. House of the Rising Sun

**I'm really sorry this wasn't out on Saturday, but I had a bunch of relatives coming in for Easter and barely got any time to write. So, here's House of the Rising Sun! It's Parker Centric, so I hope you guys like it!**

* * *

"It's not like I'm asking a personal question."

"It is a personal question."

"Is it a secret? You can't tell me?" Abby joked. Parker watched the water group. Abby put a water bottle into Jack's pack. Just the few of them had been chosen to tread to Jack's water source and bring back water for forty-six people. He hadn't been chosen to go, although he probably could've made a decent contribution.

"Well, you're not going to know."

"What's the big deal, then?"

"It's not a big deal. It's just something I did. I had my reasons. And I don't want to put it out there." Abby nodded her head in mock agreement. She laughed to herself as she slung her backpack over her shoulders.

"It's just you and tattoos don't really add up. Are you a hard-core spinal surgeon?" He laughed.

"That's me. Hard-core." The water group was just about to leave. It was Jack, Kate, Abby, Leah, Charlie, and Locke. Parker stayed behind, feeling morally guilty for almost beating up Boone, so he just needed time to sort things out. It had been a week.

"If you guys are finished verbally copulating we should get a move on. There's a whole beach of people waiting for us to get some drinking water for them. And the great white hunter's getting restless." Charlie complained, gesturing to Locke, who was shaving with the aid of a mirror.

"Charlie, ask Jack about his tattoos." Abby laughed.

"Oh, you guys have an inside joke. How nice." Leah piped in, walking up. She was slightly annoyed today, not as badly as the day before, but still pretty easily pissed. They walked into the forest, Leah trudging along as if regretting her decision to come. Abby was having a pleasant small talk conversation with Jack, who's load had been lightened by the finding of the water and the fact he knew someone on the island.

xXx

_Parker turned the keys in his car out rather quickly. He dug his hands in his pockets, having second thoughts. He took his courage and opened the car door. He walked down the sidewalk, slowly, thinking about what he had done, what he was going to do._

_"Hey, watch it." An Australian woman with a poodle warned. _

"_Sorry." He mumbled, his eyes on the sidewalk. He looked at the palm of his hand. 182 Rivercrest Lane. He looked at the addresses of the houses. 176, 178, 180, 182. He froze, his eyes fixated on the door. After what seemed forever, he walked up and knocked on the door._

_xXx_

Parker walked across the beach, hauling a beam of wood from the forest that was needed for a new tent. It was a calm, peaceful day. Mainly because the troublemakers had all left on the water trip. Not all the troublemakers, it seemed. As Parker hauled up the beam, he saw the Korean man tackle Michael. He started pounding him repeatedly, the Korean woman screaming and Walt crying 'Stop!' The commotion wasn't enough for any of the other people to hear, and Parker was too stunned to move. Suddenly, sensing something bad happening, Ivy yelled at the stop of her lungs.

"Help! Somebody help!" Sayid and Sawyer came running around the bend, Parker joining them. They ran over to the fight, and Parker pulled the Korean man off of Michael. Sawyer helped him up. Sayid restrained the Korean man, and yelled to Parker.

"The handcuffs! From the marshal! Go!" Parker ran and grabbed them from Sawyer, throwing them to Sayid. He grabbed the Korean man as Sayid chained him to a piece of the plane.

"What happened?" Parker asked Sun. He got no answer.

xXx

"Water's this way." Jack informed the group. They had been hiking a little bit over an hour, and were getting thirstier by the minute. Abby pushed a branch out of her way.

"How'd you find this place?" Kate asked.

"Luck." They walked into a cave, where in the far corner there was a bubbling stream. The cave was cool and provided shelter from nature. "This is it." Jack announced.

"No, it's just a cave with water. I would've thought it was the county fair." Leah said, dropping her backpack. Jack rolled his eyes and Leah glared at him.

"It's amazing." Locke commented.

"It's totally you." Leah scoffed. "Look, dark, and…stuff." Leah trailed her last sentence for Locke was staring at her, smiling. She edged uncomfortably over by Charlie, and tried to keep her eyes off of Locke. He confused her, and she didn't like it. She noticed some baggage in the cave. "Maybe we could go through this stuff, like…sort it."

"She's got a point." Locke said. A shiver went down her spine. This guy was really creeping her out.

"Yeah. Bring me your bottles, and keep an eye out for any medical supplies, drugs in particular." Charlie's face froze.

"Drugs. Right." Abby handed the water bottle to Jack, she noticed Charlie walking away, taking something out of his pocket. Leah sat in the corner, shielding her eyes from the sun. Her interest was sparked, so she followed him. He stopped behind a tree, when Abby realized what he stepped on.

"Charlie!" she whispered loudly. "Don't move!" He froze. "You're standing on a beehive." She walked to the front of the tree and examined the hive. "If you move, you'll split it."

"How do you know so much about bees?" he asked, worry in his voice.

"I don't, but I can see the crack-" he shuddered, "that you're standing on." Jack and Leah heard Charlie, and Leah got up to check it out. There's nothing better to do, right?

"What's going on?" she asked. Locke came around, pressing a finger to his mouth.

"Shh. He's standing on a beehive." Charlie winced.

"Aren't beehives supposed to be in trees?" Locke nodded. "So why is this one on the ground?"

"If he moves, he'll split the hive."

"I don't like bees, okay. I have an irrational fear of bees. I think I'm allergic to bees." Locke rolled his eyes, Abby and Jack were still trying to fix the beehive, setting pebbles and sticks into open spaces. Leah propped herself up against a tree, and Kate was back at the caves. Bees were getting all over Charlie, and Leah swatted one off of her face.

xXx

"I'm getting tired of saying this. I was just walking the beach with my son, and all of the sudden this dude is all up on me. I didn't do anything." Michael explained. Sayid was interrogating him about the attack earlier that day. There was silence as Sayid thought.

"Surely there must be something you're not telling us." He concluded.

"Surely? Where are you from, man?"

"Tikrit, Iraq."

"Okay. I don't know how it is in Iraq, but in the United States of America, where I'm from, Korean people don't like black people. Did you know that?" Michael jeered.

"Hey! Let's stop with the racism and try to sort things out." Parker intervened. Michael was making him angry.

"Sort things out? Maybe you can try and talk to him." The Korean man yelled out an insult at Michael. His wife cried out and started tapping her wrists. Parker went to try and explain to her.

"The cuffs have to stay on, ma'am, until we can figure out why your husband," He pointed to the man cuffed to the wreckage, "attacked Michael." He looked at her with pleading eyes, trying for her to understand.

* * *

_The door opened. A woman, with white blonde hair that was beginning to fade, and striking, ice blue eyes, opened the door. The woman stood in the doorframe, her eyes open with surprise for a split second, but then switched to burning hate. Parker opened his mouth to speak, but she interrupted._

_"Melville. What the hell do you want with my family? Haven't you ruined us enough?" she asked, glaring. _

"_Louise," she glared at him. He cleared his throat. "Mrs. Poawhay, if you'll let me explain-"_

_"I've heard enough. But maybe Creed's sister would like to hear what you've had to say. She's certainly had a lot to say about you." She led him into the house, where a young girl, around the age of 14, sat on the couch, reading a book. "Jeanette." She snapped her head up from the book. "Mr. Melville would like a word with you." At his name her face darkened, and her eyes turned to storm. _

"_Why the hell would I want to see him, Mom?"_

"_He just wants to talk, Jeanette. And don't use that language." She gestured to the couch, and Parker sat down. He took off his baseball cap, and held it in his hands. Louise left the room, and slammed the door behind her. Parker could hear her husband, Jonathan Poawhay, yelling at her. _

"_So, Jeanette-"_

"_Don't say my name."_

"_Okay. Listen, I came. I came all the way from the States. Do you want to know the reason?" She shook her head. "Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. The reason is because ever since the game where I kill-when the accident occurred, I've felt as guilty as hell. I came here looking for forgiveness." Her eyes softened. "I never, ever, mean for that to happen. And I'm really sorry for what did happened, and if I could take it all back, I would." Jeanette thought about his words. Her eyes snapped back to their cold original. _

"_You aren't sorry, you son-of-a-" Jonathan burst into the room. He was followed by Louise, whose face was tear-stained. _

_"You! Did you come to kill one of us again? Well? Did you!" He yelled. His face was red. Parker could feel himself sinking into the ground. "You did, didn't you? You no-good, dirty-"_

"_Jeanette! Leave the room!" Louise yelled. Jeanette stayed put. "Jeanette, now!" Jeanette stood up, but it was rather to join in on the yelling._

"_The case was in your favor! Just because you were more famous than Creed! You know what? They were wrong! If I was there, I would have you under the death penalty in twenty seconds!" A single tear ran down Jeanette's face. She ran out of the room, slamming her door. Parker endured several more minutes of verbal abuse from Jonathan, before he finally left the room, hoarse from screaming. Parker was left to endure silence, a constant stare from Louise always persistent. Jeanette finally came out, holding her head high. She took a seat opposite of him. "Mr. Melville, do you have any idea what you've done? You killed Creed, and ruined me. I thought about your offer, the forgiveness one? I've made my choice." Parker cringed. "Leave our house. I'm not ready to forgive."_

* * *

"A little louder, Moby Dickhead. Maybe then she'll understand you." Sawyer jabbed. Hurley walked over, holding an empty water bottle and hitting it against his palm.

"Guys, that Chinese dude is going to get pretty crispy out here. How long are you going to keep him tied down like that?"

"He's Korean." Parker mumbled.

"He tried to kill Michael. We all saw it. The cuffs stay on until we know why." Sayid said, glaring at the Korean man. He stared up at all of them, and then shook his head and attempted to make himself more comfortable. Michael put his hand on Walt's shoulder and they walked away. Soon only Parker was left, staring at the Korean man in disgust.

xXx

Back at the beehive, Charlie was close to a freak-out. Bees were slowly covering everything, including Charlie.

"Ok, Charlie, we're going to try to cover the hive." Jack explained.

"This is the most crap idea ever. It's never going to work." Charlie muttered, trying to blow a bee off of his face.

"Shut up and pull yourself together, Charlie." Leah muttered.

"It wouldn't be an irrational fear of bees if I could just pull myself together, would it?" Charlie asked sarcastically. Leah shook her head.

"If they sting you they die. So at least if you get stung, they pay for it." Charlie nodded his head in mock thanks. A bee landed on Charlie's face. Abby attempted to cover the hole with a suitcase. All were silent for a split second, and the bee stung Charlie. He smacked it, lost his balance, and then split the hive. The air was black and yellow as the angered bees stormed out, avenging themselves. Everyone ran for the caves, bees stinging everywhere they went. Charlie, Locke, and Leah ran away from the caves, where some of the bees were headed. Abby and Jack made for the caves, bees getting underneath their shoes and shirts. When they finally reached the cave, they took off their shirts to shake the dead bees from them. Abby went to get her pack, when she saw a skeleton. She gasped, and ran into Jack who was standing behind her. They stared in confusion at the skeleton, and it stared back at them.

xXx

"Who is it?"

"A male, the bones are old. I can't perform and autopsy, but I can easily say-"

"Woah! What is that? Is that a skeleton? No way. So there were people before us? That's amazing!" Leah said, running up, removing a dead bee from her jacket. Locke looked at her again, creepily, and she turned to look at Jack, who was staring at her like she was an idiot. "What?"

"What are you talking about?" Locke asked.

"Well, uh, couldn't there have been people before us? There are a lot of boats and planes and stuff that go missing. This could be the Bermuda Triangle!" She received some eye-rolls before Charlie had the courage to say,

"The Bermuda Triangle's in the Atlantic Ocean. Who are these guys?" Abby looked back at the bodies.

"One of them is female." She said. Locke nodded.

"Our very own Adam and Eve." He paused, and then turned to look around the wreckage. "I think someone should stink behind to help Charlie salvage. I'll stay. You four go ahead." Kate nodded.

"We should move out. People are getting thirsty." Kate said, after being quiet for most of the trip. Abby figured she was still upset over the marshal, so she packed up her bag and flung it over her shoulders.

"An average person needs to drink a gallon a day each." Abby said, picking up her water bottle and filling it up.

"Carrying all of that is going to be a major pain in the ass. You're starting making me rethink volunteering." Leah joked, though it was a fact.

"These caves make too good a shelter just to be used for burial. Adam and Eve, they must have lived here. Their plane crashed, or maybe they were ship-wrecked. They probably found this place and knew they could survive here. Unlimited supply of fresh water, tree canopy keeps the temperature down, shields out the sun, the openings are narrow, easier for protection against predators. We don't need to bring the water to the people. We need to bring the people to the water. I think we could live here."

xXx

_Parker left the house, close to depression. He felt guiltier than ever. It started drizzling outside, and Parker put his hands in his pockets. It was supposed to work. Supposed to give closure, take away his guilt. They weren't supposed to refuse. He dug his hands in his pockets. He walked down the sidewalk, thinking. How could they not? He made his case perfectly clear, and he was truly sorry. Parker began to believe what they had told him. The case was in his favor, because he was more famous. He hit his head, trying to erase the thought. The rain beat down harder. He approached his truck. The windows were down, and it was soaked. Parker sighed, and got in. He turned the keys. Nothing._

"_Damn it!" he yelled, slamming on the steering wheel._

xXx

Adrian and Henry were gathering firewood when the saw the water team returning. Sayid was with them, though he didn't look very happy to be. Abby put her pack down, and Leah trudged fifteen feet behind them.

"How much longer until we get to cam- Oh hi." Leah complained, but when she saw Henry and Adrian she stopped.

"It's about time!" Adrian said, putting some wood down. "I was about to drop dead!" He dramatically added. Abby laughed, and then gave him a bottle. He downed half of it in a few seconds. Henry received one also, but he drank it in small sips. Kate continued down the path, for she didn't want to keep the other people waiting for water.

"I'm going to start talking to people about the caves. Might be able to get a few to go with me before nightfall, start setting up camp." Jack explained to Sayid.

"You're serious?" he replied.

"Is there a reason you didn't consult us when you decided to form your own civilization?" Adrian asked. Jack laughed, and shook his head. Henry was confused.

"The only way we're going to survive is if we go to the caves." Abby explained, sharing Jack's side of the argument.

"Our best hope of survival is in being spotted by a plane or a ship, and for that we need to organize everyone to keep that signal fire burning while others scout the Island for supplies. Digging in anywhere else is suicide!" Sayid cried, exasperated.

"And staying on the beach isn't suicide?" Jack asked. Sayid stormed away. Henry tried not to laugh. Leah shared his predicament. Adrian couldn't help himself, and laughed. Sayid glared at him.

xXx

Sayid approached a few survivors, asking about their ideas and opinions.

"Jack is seriously thinking about moving to the caves. I'd like to know what you think." He asked Tammy. Tammy sighed.

"I don't know. The beach is nice. And it's the only way we're ever getting off this place." Sayid nodded. He approached Henry and Adrian, who were just now putting the firewood up.

"Your opinions?" He asked, because they already knew what he was talking about.

"I really want to get far away from this place, back to my wife, she's a seamstress, y'know. Her name's Marie. We got married three years ago. She about this tall, and she has dark brown curly hair to her shoulders, with blue eyes. She's really pretty. And-" Adrian laughed, getting Henry back on track. "Oh yeah, sorry. Well, I'd probably go to the caves, if that's what Jack thinks." Sayid turned to Adrian.

"Yeah, probably the caves." Sayid approached Parker.

"The caves. Safer there, from what I've been told." After a while, he had come to a 50/50 split between the caves and the beach. Abby was still undecided, as was Leah. Hurley made up his mind, and Tammy spied (Or as she'd prefer to call it, gathering info.) on them.

"Hey man, I go where the boar's at. So, what's up with you and uh, Abby? You guys going to move into a cave together, or what?"

"Am I in high school?" Jack asked, laughing slightly.

"Well, it wasn't a denial." Tammy laughed to herself. Boy, was someone going to enjoy that.

xXx

Abby was getting her stuff together, just in case she made up her mind to go to the caves. After she was finished, she took a break, and she sat down in an airline chair and read Lord of the Flies, a book she felt was perfectly appropriate for their situation. She opened the front flaps in the tarp over her tent, and moved her chair outside. She slipped on a pair of sunglasses she had found, and Sawyer walked up.

"Well, well, well. If ain't it the bell of the ball?" She sat her booked down and raised her sunglasses, giving him a confused look. "Just call 'em how I seem 'em, sweetheart. Truth be told, I'm not the only one wondering where you're going to weigh in on this whole moving off the beach thing. Are you going with the pessimists, or staying here and waiting for the rescue boats?" Abby sighed. Didn't he know she was still undecided?

"Are you going?" she asked. She had begun to take a friendly liking to Sawyer, he was entertaining.

"Well, that's the real trick, isn't it? We all pack up stakes for the caves and the next day a plane passes by, they're going to go on their merry way and be none the wiser. On the other hand, stay here, get eaten by boars, fall off a rock, not going to be anyone around to answer that 911 call."

"That's true, but you haven't answered my question." Sawyer smirked.

"You didn't answer mine." Abby opened her mouth to speak. "And I asked first." Sawyer left, smiling to himself. Abby decided she needed a change of scenery. She walked into the forest, where she found a small patch of what seemed to be plowed soil. She turned around the bend, and there was Sun, in a garden. She looked worried.

"Need any help?" Abby asked. Sun gestured to the garden, and Abby nodded. They planted a few seeds, and Abby asked her a few questions, even though she knew Sun wouldn't understand. "Do you know that rescue's bound to come any day?" Sun didn't make any notice, and covered up a hole with soil. "The weather's crazy here too." Sun nodded, and Abby looked at her, confused. "You just nodded. Did you understand me?" Sun looked conflicted, before she hurriedly whispered,

"I need to talk to you."

xXx

After talking with Sun, and swearing secrecy to not tell, Abby told one person she thought she could trust: Parker.

"Let me get this straight, she speaks English? Why doesn't she tell anyone?"

"She says her husband has a bad temper. The reason her husband, his name is Jin, attacked Michael, is a watch he was wearing. It's her father's watch, and it means a lot to Jin. He thought Michael stole it. She asked me to get him free."

"I think Michael's the only one who can do that."

"She said we could tell him. Do you want to?" Parker nodded, and Abby nodded back in thanks, then ran off to catch up with Jack.

xXx

_Parker fumbled with his ticket, and a young flight attendant picked it up for him. He scanned it under the ticket booth, and made his way to the gate. He checked his phone. No new messages. Then it rang. He picked it up._

"_Hello?"_

"_Mr. Melville, don't visit us again. My mother's hysterical and my dad's showing signs of insanity."_

_"Who is this?"_

"_Jeanette. So don't call back, Mr. Melville. You ruined my family." The line went dead, and Parker sighed. He boarded the plane, Oceanic 815, and lugged his bag behind him. A young woman with black hair and dark eyes followed him, and he let a father and on group pass him on his way to his seat, 37A. It was going to be a long ride._

xXx

Back at the cave, the newcomers were coming to settle down. Adrian lugged a huge suitcase behind him, followed by Henry, whose was only slightly lighter. Sun and Jin followed them, and a few other people followed. Tammy, Leah, and Abby had chosen to stay at the beach. Ivy decided at last minute to come with the cave-people, and Parker volunteered to stay with her. As the sun got darker, they got to the cave, and Adrian loosened his scarf. Ivy laughed.

"Short walk. I think they stretched the truth." Ivy laughed. She was slightly creeped out by the skeletons, though she thought they were interesting. Ivy had spent the day in the woods, gathering food. She didn't care much for the drama the island was bringing, but she swore she hard the most peculiar whispers around her whilst she collected. Parker could sense this, and he asked her what was wrong.

"You're never going to believe me." He gave her a look. "It's probably just island fever, but I could have sworn I heard whispers in the woods today." Parker nodded. "I'm not crazy."

"I know, I believe you. This is one crazy damn island, isn't it? You have to watch where you're going or you'll get eaten by a monster or hear whispers in the woods. I wonder what comes next."

**And what does come next? Find out on Saturday, when The Moth comes out! (Adrian centric, just in case you were wondering) Don't forget to review! And remember-You guys are what makes this story happen!**


	10. The Moth

**I'm really horrible. Sorry for not getting this out to you earlier, but things kind of went crazy the past few weeks. But I haven't forgotten you all! Here's The Moth, as little late, but as promised. So read, and don't forget to review! **

**The Moth**

**(Adrian Centric)**

* * *

Jack stood hunched over, packing the last of his things. Abby handed him a water bottle, and crossed her arms.

"So, um…you're not staying?" Jack shook his head.

"Call me a broken record, but caves are a natural shelter. And a hell of a lot safer than living here on the beach." Abby nodded.

"I know, but I just…well…I'm staying. I mean, I'm a doctor too, so if Claire needs anything." Jack made no response. "I'm sorry."

"I just don't understand why you won't come with me-us. It's maybe a mile up there, if that." Abby sighed.

"I just don't think I'll be able to set up house, Jack. We've only been here for eight days." Jack slung his backpack over his shoulder, and started walking.

"I want off this Island too, but we both know that's not going to happen any time soon. I'm not mad, but I don't see your logic." Abby nodded, and watched Jack leave. Her heart fluttered. Why did she need to stay?

xXx

Adrian filled up his water bottle. The caves were nice, cool, but he missed the beach. The noise was unbelievable. What do you get when you cross about eighteen people, running water, little space, and a cave? Lots and lots of sound. Too much for even Adrian. He decided to take a walk, to escape the seemingly endless quarreling and fights. He almost forgot his sunglasses, and picked a pair off of his bag. He loosened his scarf, and walked out into the jungle.

xXx

_Adrian pulled his car up to the pump, and shut the door behind him. He was almost out of gas, and he had places to go; people to see. He entered the amount of gallons he needed, and lit up a cigarette. A little girl from the next pump over chastised him._

"_My mommy says it's bad to smoke." Adrian laughed. _

"_Well, not for little kids, no. But for grown-ups its ok." The little girl nodded, and went back to her mother. Adrian laughed to himself. Kids. He took his credit card out and paid for the gas. He turned around to see a car speeding toward him. In surprise, he dropped his cigarette. Adrian didn't see where it had landed, but he soon realized. _

_"Oh shit." His car was on fire, and it was about to explode. He hit the ground, and then...black._

xXx

Adrian walked further into the woods. It was unbelievably hot, and humid. The sky was thick with clouds. He hopped over a tree branch, not caring where he was going. He'd find his way back eventually. Adrian swatted at a fly that caught his face. He walked and walked, until he came into a clearing and decided to sit down. He heard squeals, and carefully took out the knife he had found in the cave. Adrian turned around the bend in the clearing to see Locke, Charlie, and a boar. He stepped on a twig that crunched underneath his feet. Charlie looked at him. He looked terrible. Locke smiled at him.

"It seems you found my knife." he said, welcoming him. Adrian, for once, was speechless.

xXx

Sayid stood on the beach, holding a large pole. Around him stood Ivy, Leah, Tammy, and Boone.

"Three antenna. Three points of a triangle. One here on the beach. Another, Ivy, will position in the jungle, roughly two kilometers in, and the third I'll take to high ground, up there. If the French transmission is coming from somewhere within our triangulation, I'll be able to locate the source. But there are two complications." Half of them looked like their brains had just been hit with a nuclear bomb. "The power cells I grafted onto the antennas are dry. There's no telling how long they'll last. A minute - maybe more, maybe less." Tammy rolled her eyes.

"It's not like this is sticking with us. Why are you telling me the tech stuff?" Sayid couldn't say. Ivy, however, had worked with electronics before, and knew what he was talking about.

"So we have to wait until we're in position before we switch them on." Ivy explained. Sayid nodded.

"Wait. Wait a second. How are we going to be able to tell that we're actually in the right position? We have no way to communicate with each other." Boone realized. Sayid took something from out of his pack. Tammy's eyes grew wide.

"Oh, man. No way. Don't tell me those are…BOTTLE ROCKETS?" Sayid laughed to himself, and then addressed the group.

"Thank God for fireworks smugglers. Now, when I'm in position I'll fire off my rocket. When you two see it, you fire yours. As soon as the last one has gone up we all switch on our antennas." Tammy interrupted.

"Excuse me. Maybe you skipped a day in kindergarten, but you said there were two complications. You only gave us one." Tammy smiled like she had just cracked a murder mystery.

"The battery in the transceiver is dead. Without the transceiver all of this is for nothing. Something from a laptop computer would probably work, but I've not been able to find anything." Tammy looked at Leah, and looked back at Sayid.

"Well, Sawyer has a stash of things."

xXx

Adrian tried to lighten the situation of the trip back to the caves by cracking jokes and the like. Unfortunately, Locke wasn't the laughing type and Adrian assumed Charlie was sick or something. The walk was mostly quiet; no monsters or polar bears. Locke stared at Adrian's scarf.

"It's hot out here. Why don't you take that scarf off?" Adrian tightened it.

"No, no. I'm-I'm good. This scarf's survived a bunch of stuff. I can't bear to part with it now!" he said in a dramatic voice. He actually got a smile out of Locke. It was more of a, I can't believe how immature you are, kind of smile. "So, uh, Locke, right?" Locke nodded. "How's life?" Locke laughed.

"Well, we're on an island. We've been here for eight days, no rescue. But we have boar and water, so I'd say pretty good." Adrian nodded.

"What about you, Charlie?" Charlie turned his head around. "How's your life?"

"Brilliant. Just bloody perfect." He turned back around. Adrian raised his sunglasses. They were back at the caves. He saw Hurley and Jack lugging some suitcases and Charlie rushed to help them. He spilled all the contents of the bag and had an argument with Jack. Adrian went over to the stream, and filled up his water bottle.

"Charlie, leave it. Go get some water. Maybe you're dehydrated. Charlie, I got it. Go take care of yourself, man. We don't need you right now." Charlie looked depressed and went over to his guitar.

xXx

"_I have no idea how he survived this mess. I'm not even trying to make the situation better, ma'am. It's just a pure miracle." said the doctor."All we know is that one minute, he's filling up his gas tank. The other driver nearly smashed into him, and from what the authorities guessed, he dropped his cigarette into the gas, causing an explosion. He is very blessed. He'll be able to leave in a few hours." Adrian listened intently as the doctor told his wife about the accident. He felt fine. All he had were some mild burns on his arms and legs, and his hair was a bit singed on the ends, but other than that-perfect. He put his regular clothes on, and when the nurses gave him the okay, he checked out. _

"_Yes, Mr. Bradford. You're very lucky. Most people would have died in that situation." The woman behind the desk said. Adrian smiled._

"_Hey, there's nothing I haven't done yet." He winked, slung his jacket over his arm, and walked out the hospital doors to his car. _

xXx

"Sure. 'You came up with the damn idea so _you _get to go talk to him.' No, no, not the fugitive who could freaking handle herself but Tammy. Perfect. Just damn perfect." Tammy sighed as she trudged along to Sawyer's tent. Everyone in the group had voted her to go 'persuade' Sawyer into giving them electronics. "Not even the Iraqi guy could have gone. I bet he could, I don't know, _punch_ him or something. No, let's just send Tammy. Cause that's going to work out just great!"

"What's gonna work out great, Tambourine?" Sawyer came out of his tent, holding what looked like a mango. Tammy went in, and started digging through the seemingly countless bags. Sawyer stood at the front of the tent, too stunned to do anything. Tammy sighed, and turned to face him.

"You don't have a single freaking battery? You live like a beetle or something. You never give anyone anything, and frankly, it's pissing people off!" He gave her a look. "You just don't want to get off of this place, because no one cares enough for you to care!" He hung his head in mock insult.

"Looks like I've been all figured out. And you feel sorry for me. That's just gold, ain't it?" Tammy sighed and muttered under her breath.

"It's not sorry. It's pity. Because you don't make an effort to even get along." Sawyer smiled and reached into a bag underneath his pillowcase.

"All you had to do was say please." He said, pulling out a laptop. Tammy took it and uttered a barely audible thanks before turned on her heels and speeding back to Sayid.

xXx

Adrian was hanging around the caves, taking a 'vacation' from all the crazy stuff that'd happened since the crash. Hurley came into the cave, lugging what looked like a guitar case. Adrian got up (for he was extremely bored) to go help him. He remembered that Charlie had said something about a guitar when they were on the signal mission, and took it from Hurley.

"Hey, Charlie. This yours?" He called out. Charlie came around back, looking sick.

"Oh yeah. You're probably wondering because I play bass in Drive Shaft. I wrote a bunch of tunes on that - You, All, Everybody." He nodded, but a light bulb went off in his eyes. Guitarist obviously suffering drawback from something, Drive Shaft, You All Everybody. He knew who this guy was. Hurley came up behind Adrian.

"Listen, uh, man. Jack just wants you to find another place for it. He's moving supplies and says it's in the way." Charlie looked offended, then it turned to raging anger. He started walking quickly towards the caves where Jack was, and Adrian followed after him, trying to get him to calm down. He started yelling at Jack.

"You know? A lot of people look up to me. They respect me. And you, you just treat me like I'm some bloody child! Like I'm some useless joke! Charlie's not good enough to do this, Charlie's just in the way. Put Charlie onto that." Adrian tried to butt in but was interrupted by Jack.

"Sit down. Let me take a look at you man." Charlie looked at him in disgust.

"Oh, you're going to look out for me, yeah? We'll look out for each other, that's how it is? I'm not interested!"

"Charlie, just calm down, alright?" Adrian asked. Charlie stared at him for a second, and then Jack also tried to calm Charlie down.

"You're not yourself, Charlie." A bomb went off in Charlie's head.

"You don't know me! I'm a bloody rock god!" Charlie yelled at the top of his lungs. Suddenly, the walls of the cave shook. A few rocks tumbled down off of the roof. A deep, loud, rumbling sound came down. Charlie started running for the door as bigger, heavier rocks came tumbling down. Jack stood, dumbfounded, and Adrian had to pull him in deeper into the cave to avoid being smashed to death by giant rocks. The roar quieted after five minutes. By that time, Adrian could see no light, nor Jack. He pulled himself off of the ground, and took out his cell phone, which he still kept on him at all times. He waved it around the cave, and saw that the spot he landed on was the only spot in the cave not filled by boulders. He escaped death once again!

xXx

Everyone outside had heard the roar too. Hurley was standing outside, trying to look into the caves. Henry ran over, followed by Parker and Ivy. Charlie came stumbling out of the cave, covered in dirt.

"Where's Jack?" Parker asked. Henry looked around the group.

"Hey! Where's Adrian?" Charlie pointed back to the caves. Henry ran up to the wall. "Adrian! Can you hear me?" Parker turned around.

"We need someone to get help. Hey, Henry and Charlie. Go get help. Now!" Henry didn't have to be told twice. He took off like a printer towards the beach. "And make sure you tell Abby!"

xXx

"So, let me get this straight. We're going after a signal that may not even exist. What are the odds of this working?" Tammy asked as she trudged forward with Sayid. Sayid smiled, amused, and answered.

"No worse than the odds of our surviving that plane crash." Abby jogged up to meet them.

"Yeah, but people survive plane crashes all the time." Tammy pointed out.

"Not like this one. The tail section broke off while we were still in the air. Our section cart wheeled through the jungle and yet we escaped with nothing but a few scrapes. How do you explain that? No one's that lucky. We shouldn't have survived."

"Well…we did survive. So…yeah. How much longer?" Tammy asked.

xXx

Charlie and Henry raced to the beach, only taking a few minutes. People stared at Charlie, so Henry explained to everyone the dire need of the situation.

"We, uh, we need help. The caves. Go!" Three people ran in the direction of the jungle. "Jack and Adrian are-well-trapped. The cave caved in." Michael grouped a couple of people up, and they started for the jungle. Boone ran after them, but stopped to tell Shannon something.

"Because Kate, Sayid, and Tammy are triangulating the French signal. But the antenna's power's really weak so you have to wait until they fire their bottle rockets. Then you fire this one. Then you turn on the antenna. Got it?" Shannon looked bored. "Did you get that?" she nodded, and he left. Adrian started going back to the caves when he remembered Abby. He mumbled as he made his way back to the beach.

"Sorry sport, you just missed her. Her, Mohammad, and the rest of them headed into the woods about 10 minutes ago. But don't sweat it. I know which way they went. I'll tell her. You just keep doing... whatever it is you do around here." Sawyer headed off into the direction the others started, leaving a very confused Henry to pick up his wits and race to the caves, grateful. He caught up with Michael and they started removing rocks.

"Alright, this area here is load-bearing. We've got to dig where there's no danger of the wall buckling in on itself. Here, we dig in here so the wall doesn't collapse. Four at a time, by hand, until we can find some kind of shovel. We take shifts, and go slow. Whoever isn't digging should be clearing the rocks that we clear out and bring the water to whoever is working, okay. Let's move."

xXx

Leah had been on the beach when Charlie and Henry rushed to get help. She pulled rocks away, and handed one to Parker. Another man, Scott, (or was it Steve?) took over her station and she was free to take a break. She filled up her water bottle by the spring and started the long walk back to the beach. The path was hard to see at times, and it was amazing that she didn't get completely lost. She stopped in her tracks when she heard voices. Leah listened, not letting an opportunity to kill boredom pass. Boredom was common on a stranded island.

"There's a bunch of people there now." Said a voice who Leah recognized as Charlie.

"Then why aren't you with them? You didn't come here to tell me about Jack, did you?" There was a brief silence, and Leah fidgeted.

"I want my stash, Locke. I can't stand feeling like this." Stash? Like…like drugs? No way. Leah tried to get closer, but still kept her distance. Leah strained to hear what they were saying. Locke mumbled something. "I don't know, a butterfly?"

"No, it's much more beautiful than that. That's a moth cocoon. It's ironic, butterflies get all the attention; but moths - they spin silk, they're stronger, they're faster." Leah hid behind a tree so that no one could see her, but she could see Locke pointing to a tiny little cocoon. "You see this little hole? This moth's just about to emerge. It's in there right now, struggling. It's digging its way through the thick hide of the cocoon. Now, I could help it, take my knife, gently widen the opening, and the moth would be free. But it would be too weak to survive. The struggle is nature's way of strengthening it. Now this is the second time you've asked me for your drugs back." So, it was drugs. "Ask me again and it's yours." Leah stepped on a twig, and it snapped loudly. She held her breath, and silently prayed that they wouldn't find her.

xXx

Back at the caves, the group was coming closer and closer to breaking in. Parker shoved a rock out of the way, and it echoed.

"Hey! We've got a hole over here! Jack, hey, Jack can you hear us? Adrian?" Parker could barely hear a mumble followed by a farther-off yell. "Hey, they're both in there. Alive." Parker stood up, and brushed himself off. Leah came back into the caves, and received a look from one of the older women, who had obviously seen her retreat.

"What's going on?" she asked. Parker put his ear to the tiny hole.

"I'm-I'm pinned. Charlie was with me."

"He made it out." Leah said to the rubble. "Was Adrian in there too?" Silence. "We're going to get you out of there, okay, Jack?"

xXx

Sayid, Abby, Tammy, Kate, and Sawyer trekked up the mountainside. Tammy kept the group entertained by telling them stories she randomly came up with off the top of her head. You could say it was verbal mad libs.

"Ok, so the cat walked up to the bartender and…Sawyer, noun."

"Beer."

"Ok, and the cat ordered a beer, and the bartender said, 'Holy crap a talking cat!' So then the cat got the beer, for free, but then the cops showed up and arrested the cat and Abby, next sentence."

"Um, the police found out the cat was underage?"

"Perfect! So the cops looked at the cat's ID, and it turns out he was only 20 years old. In cat years. So that would make him like two. And they put handcuffs on him and led him out to the car, but his paws escaped and he got free. Then, before fleeing, he attacked the officer's face, and ran towards the woods. Sadly, he was hit by an old woman on a scooter and maliciously killed. So every Thursday the 26th, as the story goes, the cat comes to the bar and orders a pint of beer. And no one who gives it to him gets their faces clawed off. The end." Abby had to manage not to laugh. Kate smiled. Sawyer rolled his eyes. "You didn't like it?" Tammy made herself sound offended.

"We'll put the second antenna here." Sayid stated. He turned to Sawyer. "You really came to help?" Sawyer nodded. Kate handed the radio to him. "Attach this antenna up in that tree, as high up as you can." Tammy dropped her backpack. Sawyer pulled himself onto the tree. "Five o'clock. Watch for my flare, then it's your turn. I don't trust him." Sayid whispered to Kate.

"Who does?" Tammy asked. "And when are we leaving? I'm," Tammy peered through her Oceanic Airlines water bottle, and shook it around. "almost out of water."

"I don't trust him with you or her." Tammy nodded.

"I'm sure Kate can handle him."

xXx

"Okay, we can't safely make that tunnel any bigger, but since Jack can't get out, one of us is going to have to go in and un-pin him." Michael said, examining the hole.

"Someone crawl through that?" Leah asked. "Who's going to-"

"I'll do it." Charlie said, entering the cave. Leah froze. She wondered if he had noticed her eavesdropping.

"No, man. Look, you're still too shook up. I might be able to squeeze through..."

"Hey, who's going to take care of your son if something happens." He pointed to Sun. "She's got a husband," he looked to Boone. "He's got a sister. I'm alone here, no one on the Island. Let me do this." Leah looked at him.

"I'll go with you. What'll happen to Jack and Adrian if you get caught in there too? I'm going, there's nothing you can say about it." And with that, she squeezed through the tiny opening at the bottom of the cave. Charlie was right behind her.

xXx

Abby, Kate, and Sawyer sat around the tree. Kate checked her watch. Abby took a pair of sunglasses from her bag and slipped them on. Abby held the bottle rocket in her h ands.

"I just don't want to miss Sayid's signal. Remember, I'll fire the flare, you set off the antenna."

"I just thank the good lord I've got you here to keep reminding me."

"It's a dirty job. Someone's got to do it." Kate said. Abby shrugged.

"It's not that dirty. All we're going is setting off fireworks and turning on an antenna." Abby sat down on the ground. Sawyer thought of something, and voiced his mind.

"So what is it about that guy - Jack. What it is about him makes you all weak? He's a doctor, right? Yeah, the ladies dig the doctors. Hell, give me a couple of band aids, a bottle of peroxide, I could run this Island."

"Keep in mind, I'm a doctor too." Sawyer chuckled.

"Even better. The difference between us ain't that big, sweetheart. I guarantee you, if he had survived a few more weeks on this Island you'd have figured that out." Abby gave him a look. Kate turned her head around to hear. "Ah, damn. Didn't I tell you? Word from the valley is Saint Jack got himself buried in a cave-in." Abby and Kate's faces fell in horror. "Look at the bright side, now your friend has someone else to pity." Abby immediately threw the bottle rocket at his feet and took off in a sprint, Kate at her heels.

xXx

_Adrian looked out of the bus window. The intercom sounded. _

"_Ladies and gentlemen, we'll be arriving at the mall bus stop in about fifteen minutes." He picked up his phone. He had one missed message. _

"_Mr. Bradford, I will be waiting for you at the address I sent you in the email. It's going to be great!" Adrian deleted the message. He banged his head against the car seat in front of him. A five hour bus drive to settle a acting job? The bus came to a stop. He pulled his bag behind him. It was raining. He sought shelter under the roofed bus stop. He pulled out his phone, and dialed the man's number. Adrian got the answering machine. At the tone, he started talking._

"_Hey, I'm on my way right now. I'm really curious about the urgency, but I guess I'll find out when I get there. Bye." Just then, a taxi swerved by. He barely caught it, and threw a twenty over the seat. "Uh, 190, Jralin Drive. I think that's right." The cab flew down the road, obviously happy with the twenty. He pulled up in front of a fancy restaurant. A man waited on the sidewalk, an obviously fake smile plastered on his face. Adrian pulled his scarf tighter to conceal the burns that were almost invisible. The man waved. _

xXx

Kate and Abby continued their sprint for the cave. Abby didn't particularly care for the company of the other woman, because of the whole marshal incident. She also didn't understand why she was so interested in Jack. What had it been, ten days? She tried to separate herself from Kate, but Kate was honestly faster than she. When they finally arrived, after about a good ten minutes, Abby was panting for breath. She ran to Michael.

"Where is he? Where is Jack?" Hurley gestured to the cave. "Does anyone know if he's alive? Oh god-"

"We don't know. Charlie and Leah went in there through a tunnel that we dug, but it collapsed." Henry stood up.

"Uh, Adrian's in there too. You kinda left him out." Abby ignored him, but Hurley gave him a sorrowful look. "The cave collapsed when Charlie and Leah went in, yeah, that's true. They all four could be dead by now. But, that's life, I guess? I think they're fine." People stared at Henry, a little stunned. "Why isn't anyone digging? They'll run out of air."

xXx

Adrian crawled closer to the mouth of the cave, whispering loudly:

"Jack? Jack!" Every so often. He resorted to sitting on a larger rock and throwing rocks against the cave wall. He heard coughing. He scrambled closer to the sound. "Jack!" he whispered. It wasn't very necessary to whisper, but Adrian had the tendency to whisper in quiet situations. A grunt went out. "Hey, Jack! Are you there?"

"I-I'm pinned. Under something. I don't think I can move. He heard another person.

"I hear voices. Hey, Charlie, do you hear that? I think I hear two-hey! It's both of them!" Leah practically yelled. "You guys ok?" she asked. Charlie was right behind her. "Well, our tunnel collapsed, so, yeah. We're pretty much screwed. Anyone care for rounds of Kumbaya and Go Fish?" Jack sighed from under the rock, and Adrian realized he hadn't freed Jack yet, and moved the large stone. Jack examined his shoulder.

"It's dislocated. One of you is going to have to pop it back in." No one volunteered. "Please, I just need someone's help with this." Charlie finally started mumbling,

"I can't, no I can't." He mustered up courage. "What do I do?"

"Ok. Take my hand, and- Now, when I tell you to, pull as hard as you possibly can."

xXx

"_Adrian Bradford, right? I'm Bruce Heim, and I've heard you're interested in a movie deal." Bruce didn't let Adrian respond. "Real nice show, shooting's in Australia too. Beautiful country. Here's the script." Adrian was handed a generously thick sum of paper. He stared at the cover. _Cook the Cook.

"_What's it about?" Adrian asked, flipping the first page. He took a sip of coffee as he skimmed the cast list. _

"_Well, it's about these three home intruders that break into a wealthy man's house to steal his cash. Mr. Wealthy Man is at a party, and only his cook, Claudette, is home. When the intruders try to get into the safe, they unwillingly meet Claudette. One of the burglars, a.k.a. you, gets the hots for Claudette, and in the end, she gives you the wrong combination and all four of you get blown up. Sound cool or what?" Adrian nodded enthusiastically. _

"_Yeah, sounds awesome! When does shooting start?" Bruce laughed. _

"_I'll call my good friend, Miller, and he'll give you the info. Cool. It's gonna be great, Mr. Bradford. Thank you." Adrian gave the waitress a tip, and slipped the lid on his to-go latte. _

"_No. Thank __**you.**_"

xXx

Leah sat on a rock, humming a song. Charlie had fixed Jack's arm, and she was sitting far enough away from them that she could barely hear what they where saying. There was a mummer from Jack. Then one from Charlie.

"Yeah, you think I'm useless, and a junkie to boot." Leah stood up, nearly bumping her head on the cave roof. Charlie was confused, and Leah didn't explain that she knew he used drugs.

"Useless? Charlie, give me a break. It took major guts to get back into a cave, much less the one two other people were trapped in. Sure, we're all trapped now, but I still think you're really brave. So, yeah, Charlie. I won't forget that. I'm sure Jack won't either. Or Adrian. You saved their lives, Charlie, even though that may not be for that much longer." Charlie looked stunned. Leah sat down. Charlie looked behind her. "What?"

"Right behind you, look. There's a bloody moth in here. Look." Charlie got up and started following the tiny creature. Adrian stood up to follow him. Jack got up as well.

"Charlie, what are you doing?"

xXx

In the caves, Kate and Abby toiled away at picking rocks and clearing the passage. No sign had been made of the four people, and many were starting to fear the worst. Suddenly, Walt stood up.

"Hey, it's the doctor." Abby froze. It was true. Jack, Adrian, Charlie, and Leah all came out of the jungle. Abby ran and hugged Jack.

"Ow, easy, my shoulder, careful." Abby blushed. Leah, Adiran, and Charlie were surrounded by questions.

"Charlie found a way out." Adrian explained.

"Yeah, he was like 'Look a moth!' And we found a way out. It was like-I don't know…"

"Dude, you rock." Adrian looked at Charlie. He noticed he looked happier than earlier that day. Henry came up behind him.

"Hey, man. Where have you been all day?" Henry asked, jokingly. Adrian laughed.

xXx

Tammy and Sayid hiked up the mountainside. Tammy, for one, was tired of walking, and came to the conclusion Ivy should have gone with Sayid. That way she could've stayed at the beach.

"Alright everyone, now it's your turn." Sayid muttered as he turned on the bottle rocket. The bottle rocket from the beach went off. "Come on, come on, one more. Come on Abby. Come on." The third rocket spiraled into the air. "Yes. Yes." He took the transceiver out of his pack. Tammy came over to peer over his shoulder. He turned it on. Acquiring signal. "Where are you?" Receiving Signal "Yes!" Strong signal. "Where are you? Where are you?" Then a large thud sounded, and Sayid fell to the ground. Tammy had barely any time to react before she, too, hit the grass.

xXx

Abby walked over to Jack and Charlie. She had worked on her little 'present' for a few minutes, out of a suitcase that belonged to a dead person. She helped him into a makeshift sling. Abby tied it in the back, smiled, satisfied, and turned to Jack, looking for an opinion.

"Thanks for the sling, Abby." Jack smiled. Abby nodded in approval. Charlie got up and walked over to Locke, where Leah was standing.

"Listen." Leah stated. "You know when you talked to Charlie earlier today? Yeah…I was…kinda listening." Locke chuckled.

"I know." Charlie stormed up to him, completely ignoring the fact Leah was there.

"Give them to me." He begged.

"This is the third time. Are you sure you really want them?"

"I've made my choice." Locke shook his head, and handed a small baggie to Charlie. Charlie looked it over in his hands, then threw it into the fire in front of him. The drugs cackled and burned. Locke looked proud, and like he knew that Charlie would make that decision. Leah just stared. Then, words just kind of came to her.

"Good job, Charlie. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but that took courage. I meant what I said in the caves, Charlie." He looked grateful at her. Then Locke pointed to the sky. A single moth fluttered into the air.

xXx

**Once, again, I'm really sorry that this is so late. But, I have a funny story about, ironically, a MOTH! I was at a nature camp, and my guide, who kind of reminded me of Locke in some ways, found a cocoon while we were bushwhacking. He was all like "This is a moth cocoon." I cracked up about that until we left.**


End file.
